


Fortune's Fool

by adjit



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: (technically) - Freeform, Action & Romance, Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Gods & Goddesses, Character Death, F/M, Fluff and Angst
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-11-10
Updated: 2016-02-10
Packaged: 2018-05-01 00:54:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 24,762
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5186066
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/adjit/pseuds/adjit
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Marinette is a Goddess of Luck, well-loved by the people of earth and living a happy divine life. But a pair of brilliant green eyes and a kind smile catch her attention, and she finds herself falling hard. But a goddess falling for a human can never end well, can it…?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. This bud of love

**Author's Note:**

> Inspired partly by http://outerspacekat.tumblr.com/post/107490606944
> 
> My first fanfic in a while, so any feedback would be greatly appreciated! Also posted on my Miraculous fanfic tumblr: polkadottedluckycharm.tumblr.com
> 
> Send me any comments or requests you have!

Marinette looked down over the gathering of people, a soft smile on her face. Humanity was at the height of their belief in gods, as her people were often called. But even at the height, she was rarely called upon as the patron deity of a house. She was renowned as a kind and benevolent goddess, but she did not hold the temptations that humanity chased: power, wisdom, strength. She instead held court over the powers of luck, which many found to be too weak a power.

And yet there were still those who recognized the quiet power of luck, and called upon her to ask her blessings. She moved to the altar placed at the end of the room, strides graceful and sure even though she existed on a separate plane and none could see her. She looked over the family as they processed down the room, leaving offerings to appease her. They were hardworking and kind people, a family of dreamers who wanted more than they had but would wait patiently for their time to come. Her favorite kind of people, and the people that she knew luck would benefit. Luck was a subtle power, constantly changing the outcome of events without being noticed. It couldn’t overcome everything, but it would be a strong support even when unappreciated.

Marinette looked around the room again, trying to find the mother and father of the child for whom this entire ceremony was being held. She finally caught sight of them, slowly walking down the center aisle towards the altar. The mother held a bundle of blankets in her arms, and the young goddess knew that that was the child she had been called upon to bless. She stepped around the offerings and met the couple as they knelt in front of the altar. The pomp and circumstance was really unnecessary, and she knew she would offer her blessings to this family simply for asking for her assistance. But the family all seemed to find a comfort in their ritual, so she had never stopped them. As the young child was placed in a bed a few feet in front of the altar and the parents began murmuring prayers to beg for her blessing, she leaned down to greet the new human.

Bright, shockingly clear green eyes gazed back at her. As if he had seen her, the young boy reached out towards the goddess, a smile splitting his face. She was taken aback for a moment, and then smiled in return.

“It seems you’re quite special, hm?” she whispered conspiratorially to the child, who only waved his arm in response. She laughed under her breath, and then leaned over to brush his golden hair away from his forehead and place a light kiss to each of his temples. “You have my blessing. May luck and abundance support you throughout your life.”

When she pulled back, the smile on the child’s face had changed to one of awe, reflected on both of his parent’s faces.

“Did you see that? The goddess herself appeared before us just now, did she not?” the mother whispered.

A general murmur replaced the stunned silence in the room, and Marinette listened carefully to try to understand the situation. A mirage of a woman seemed to appear and had stooped to kiss the child, giving him her blessing. The murmur grew until it was a chorus of cheering and thanks offered to her. But she was not paying attention to them anymore.

She had no idea how they had seen her, but she suspected it had to do with the child. She glanced down at him, a wry smile on her lips. He hadn’t taken his eyes off of her. “I think I’m going to keep my eyes on you.”

He only blinked at her, slow and content. She laughed slightly, and then was off. Back to her own home, leaving the world of humanity behind.

 

She kept her promise, and watched him grow up. She watched as he lost his baby fat and grew into a graceful and utterly _beautiful_ young man. She watched as his radiance only seemed to intensify with his gentle manners, his kindness, and even the occasional moments of playfulness. Those came later in life, when he was happier and more open.

With her watching came more blessings. When he was faced with trouble in his life, she would whisper quietly and tip the scales just a little more in his favor. She called upon luck so often for help that the powers came to recognize him as something important to their Lady, and her blessings upon him would manifest even in the small moments when she was living her own life instead of watching his. He lived a charmed life, and he died quietly and peacefully at a respectable age, surrounded by family.

It was horribly idyllic, and she found she couldn’t help smiling in exasperated fondness even as tears ran down her face.

“Why do you cry? He’s human, he’ll reincarnate,” asked a small voice. Marinette didn’t turn to the speaker, unable to tear her gaze away in his last moments. But she knew who was speaking.

“He’ll have to start again, Tikki. The same soul, but everything will be different. Humans can change drastically from lifetime to lifetime.”

“So you feel like you’re losing someone you love.”

She finally pulled her gaze away from the scene. His soul was in the hands of the Cycle now, and there was nothing she could do. Instead, she focused on the small deity in front of her. “...Love?”

“You love him, don’t you?”

“I love everyone in the families that ask for my patronage.”

Tikki smiled at her. “You do, my Lady, and that’s part of what makes you so wonderful. But don’t you love him differently than that?” She reached up and wiped the remaining tears from her Lady’s eyes as she spoke. “You’ve never cried before.”

She blinked, and her face slowly turned more and more red as she realized the truth in Tikki’s words. “Oh no.”

Tikki patted Marinette, comforting her even though technically Marinette held a much higher position. Marinette was quickly distracted as she saw that the soul she loved so much was about to be reborn. She watched as he was born into a wealthy family that had never asked her for assistance in their lives, and felt a trickle of despair. She could already tell that he would look completely different, born with a dark head of hair. But when he opened his eyes they were still the bright, clear green she remembered, and she whispered a blessing through her tears.

Not that he needed it. She could tell that his soul carried the weight of her previous blessings, and she knew that this soul would be blessed with luck for millennia.

“...I’ll leave you to it, my Lady,” muttered Tikki as she left. But Marinette was too entranced in watching her favorite soul to respond. The tears still ran down her face, but she didn’t seem to notice.

 

Deities generally didn’t visit the human plane unless there was a ceremony, but there was no reason they _couldn’t_ , as long as belief was strong enough. That was what Marinette reasoned as she found herself standing on the road outside his house, in any case. No one could see her anyway, and watching from far away got boring on occasion.

She had continued watching him. She had watched him live through four more lifetimes, actually, four separate incarnations of the soul she loved so much, and every time she had fallen in love again. He changed a lot every life, but some things stayed the same. He always had incredible green eyes, he was always incredibly lucky, and he was always incredibly kind. And Marinette always loved him. But this life, he looked so much like the first incarnation of him that she had known, and she couldn’t keep herself from finally coming to visit.

She stood in the middle of the road, and any passers-by walked around her, not quite knowing why they chose to change their path. That was how visits to this plane always were. She was invisible to humans (unless something extraordinary happened), but not completely intangible. Most could feel her presence at a subconscious level and so they avoided her, but no one could ever see her.

And yet, when he stepped outside his house, his eyes seemed to land right on her. Marinette froze, staring with wonder at eyes that seemed to stare back, locked in an endless moment. But the moment was broken as his younger sister came bounding out of the house behind him, tugging on his arm and pulling his attention. When he glanced out into the street again, his eyes glided past where she stood with no recognition.

She wasn’t sure if she had imagined that moment or if it had actually happened, but she quickly fled in any case. She came back a few days later, unable to stay away, but this time she kept herself hidden if she could. She mostly watched as he played with his younger siblings, finding comfort in the love in his eyes and the happiness in his smile. As they grew older, Marinette found other times to watch. Her favorite times were when he was relaxed and open, but she would come when he was in pain and wanting to crawl into himself as well. Times like those were hard, because she wanted nothing more than to comfort him, yet several incidents had made her paranoid that he could see her and was just pretending he couldn’t. So she stayed hidden and whispered prayers and blessings until she had to leave.

She carried on in this new pattern for several more lifetimes, but she found the amount of time she could remain on the earthly plane decreased every lifetime. She knew it was going to happen. Belief in deities peaked and then receded in a cycle as humanity moved forward, and she had met him at the height of a belief period. As belief dwindled so did her ability to reach him. Though she knew it would happen, it didn’t stop her from feeling as if she were missing a part of herself as she found herself unable to visit him at all.

“Maybe it’s better this way,” Marinette’s mother said, coming up behind the goddess. She placed a comforting hand on her shoulder, but Marinette only drooped further. “You need some distance from him.” The continuation of that sentence was unspoken, but Marinette heard it anyway. _Or he’ll only continue to hurt you._

She knew that falling in love with a human soul was reckless and stupid. She knew it was painful- oh, she knew it was painful. Watching him live over and over and never being able to do anything but _watch_ was like a knife in her heart, and every person he fell in love with that wasn’t her was another twist of that bittersweet knife. But not seeing him was worse. She wasn’t going to just forget about him. She didn’t _want_ to just forget about him.

“Well, it’s not like I have a choice, huh?” She tried to smile at her mother, but she had never been a particularly good actress.

Her mother sighed, pulling her into a firm hug. She crumpled into the embrace, the comforting action finally forcing her tears to come. Her mother smoothed a hand through her hair.

“You’re still a young goddess, Marinette. Not too long ago you were just a Muse. But now you have power of your own, and you have the power to get over this.”

Marinette clutched at her mother, burying her face in her shoulder. The tears were coming harder now, and she had to take a moment to calm herself before she could speak. “Am I selfish?”

Her mother only laughed lightly. “For loving someone? That’s one of the most selfless things you could do.” When Marinette didn’t reply, she continued speaking. “You’ve never once done anything to isolate him, even when it hurt you. You continued your blessings even when he was no longer leaving you offerings.” She pulled back, her hands on the shoulders of her daughter. “You could do with being more selfish.”

Marinette wiped her eyes, laughing slightly. The sound was sad. She still couldn’t smile. “Mm…”

Her mother patted her one last time, smiling down at her daughter. “Watch him while you still can. Maybe you’ll find closure.”

Marinette felt another stab at her heart as she nodded. Belief was only getting lower as time went on, and soon their realms would be completely separated. It wouldn’t last forever. Belief would rise again, eventually. But it would be a long time.

She turned to go watch, a sudden urgency taking over her movements. She knew it wouldn’t provide her closure, but she would watch before he faded from her life.

 

 

Tikki was tugging on her arm, but she couldn’t move. He was gone. He was gone from her life. Not forever, but for long enough that Marinette had to wonder how she could possibly make it through. Logically, she knew that he was just a human and she had lived without him for centuries. But logic had no place in the whirlwind of emotion that was blowing through Marinette’s head. Love was not logical, and Marinette loved him so much it _hurt_.

Tikki finally seemed to lose her infinite patience at her friend staring at nothing, and she raised her voice to an almost yell in an attempt to get her attention. “Marinette!”

The goddess finally heard, turning her head slowly to look at the minor deity. Her eyes seemed dull and far away. Tikki hated seeing her beloved Lady so despondent, so she finally gathered the courage to mention the one thing she knew would make her feel better. “You could join him, you know.”

The goddess looked confused, but the cautious hope that instantly alighted in her eyes assured Tikki that this was the right move. She continued, “It would take a lot of your energy, which is why many deities don’t do it, but you won’t need that power until a belief period returns. You could join him for this lifetime.”

Marinette gasped, her eyes fully shining. She didn’t know what the other girl meant, but she trusted her. She was a deity of wish fulfillment, after all. And that was the unvoiced wish she had carried since watching the boy's first lifetime. Her voice came out in a reverent whisper. “How?”

 


	2. Never did run smooth

Marinette frowned, walking away from yet another deity who had turned her down. She looked at Tikki, who was frowning gently. “Is there really no way to create a human vessel without help?”

Tikki sighed, shaking her head. “You can create the vessel by yourself, but you can’t bind your own soul to it. There’d be no point.”

“And you won’t help me because…?”

“Because I think your parents deserve to know that you’re leaving. I can help you as soon as you tell them.”

Marinette crossed her arms, looking away. “I’ve asked enough people that they probably know by now.”

“If you can’t even tell your parents, then you probably shouldn’t do it.”

“Tikki, don’t say that. I have to go.” Marinette’s voice was pleading, and her blue eyes were wide with panic. After Tikki had explained what she needed to do, she had discovered a newfound energy and purpose. But without it they both knew she would slip back into a morose state. This was her last chance. She couldn’t stop now.

But Tikki was surprisingly stubborn for such a sweet girl. She put her hands on her hips, her voice still soft. “Your parents won’t stop you.”

“...But they’ll tell me not to,” Marinette replied, sighing. She looked away from her friend, dropping her arms to her side again and seeming to shrink just a little.

“You don’t have to listen to them.” Tikki was slightly worried to be giving this advice, because while she knew Marinette was now their equal and didn’t _have_ to listen to her parents, she still generally believed that she _should_. But the happiness of her Lady came first.

Marinette shifted from foot to foot for a moment, clutching her hands in front of her. She replied in a small voice. “I don’t want to hear them disregarding him again. Every time they say he’s just a human and that I shouldn’t love him, it hurts. They don’t… understand.”

Tikki grabbed Marinette’s hands, holding them firmly as she looked up into Marinette’s face. “If you show them how determined you are to do this, maybe they’ll finally get it.”

Marinette gently pulled her hands away, biting her lip and looking as if she wanted to say something. But she remained silent and turned her back on Tikki, letting out a breath as she began to walk away. Tikki watched her go, her eyes widening in confusion. Was she upset?

Marinette suddenly halted, and then turned her head slightly to speak over her shoulder. “I can’t face them by myself. Would you come with me?”

Tikki immediately brightened. “You’re going to tell them?”

“...Yeah.” And then she was walking forward again, resolute. Tikki breathed a sigh of relief. If Marinette really hadn’t wanted to tell her parents, Tikki knew she would have given in and helped her Lady. But she had a feeling that Marinette knew that as well. She smiled happily as she chased after Marinette, grabbing her hand. Her Lady really was amazing.

 

Marinette faced both of her parents. She gulped. She opened her mouth, and then closed it again. She looked from the concerned face of her father to the pursed lips of her mother to the soft smile on Tikki’s face. And then she looked at the ground.

A heavy silence fell in the room, each second adding more and more weight onto Marinette’s shoulders. No one moved or said anything.

The silence was squeezing at Marinette, and she felt like she would explode. The pressure finally forced the words out of her mouth. “Mom, dad… I’m leaving!” She didn’t dare look up.

The room was silent for a few electric moments, and then she heard a resigned, “We know.”

She wasn’t surprised by that fact, but she was surprised by the lack of resistance. She looked up slowly, meeting the eyes of her mother. She was smiling. It was a sad smile, but it was still a smile.

“Did you really think we hadn’t heard by now? You’ve asked everyone we know,” her father said. He looked more amused than Marinette’s mother. “‘Your daughter is doing something stupid again!’ ‘Your daughter is in her rebellious phase rather late, isn’t she?’ ‘Lady Marinette is planning something, you should be careful.’”

Marinette felt herself flush even as her father laughed at his own impersonation of the other deities. She only muttered, “It’s not stupid.”

Her mother lightly pushed her father to get him to stop laughing. “No, it’s not,” she assured.

Marinette looked at her mother, somewhat surprised. She had expected her to be the one protesting this more than anyone. Her mother gazed back, searching Marinette’s face. Marinette didn’t know what she found there, but her mother only smiled a sad smile again.

“You really love him.” It was a statement, not a question.

Question or not, Marinette still replied, “I do.” The ferocity of her declaration surprised everyone in the room, and she was soon blushing again.

Her parents shared a look, and then her father spoke. “We just want you to be happy. If you think that happiness lies with him… It will be a hard path.”

“We want you to be happy and _safe_ ,” Marinette’s mother corrected. “You’re going to try to create a vessel, right?” The woman side-eyed Tikki with a raised eyebrow, and Tikki nodded bashfully. “You shouldn’t go by yourself,” she continued.

Tikki immediately spoke up. “I can go. I can watch over her.”

Marinette’s parents nodded. They didn’t seem surprised at the answer. “Then there’s no reason to wait any longer,” Marinette’s father proclaimed. “You’ll have to go to the point where our planes are closest. I’m sure you know where it is by now.”

Marinette was in too elated a mood to respond to the light jab. She was going to live with him. She’d be able to see him again and he’d be able to see her. A grin split her face and she rushed towards her parents, pulling the both of them into a hug. Her father laughed as he squeezed back, and though her mother was much more somber, she too joined in on the hug. Marinette pulled back, immediately whirling around to grab Tikki’s hand. “Let’s go.”

“Don’t leave us behind quite yet,” her mother chided. “We’ll be with you until you go.”

Marinette was barely listening, pulling Tikki out of the house. Her parents shared another look before pursuing.

 

“Face each other and clasp hands,” Marinette’s father instructed. “You’ll be making your own vessel and binding the other’s soul to her vessel. Try not to lose concentration. It’s easy to make a mistake, especially when you’re multitasking.”

“Be especially careful with Tikki, Marinette. She has less power so her vessel will be smaller. Be sure to contain it properly,” added Marinette’s mother.

The goddess nodded, looking to Tikki with a smile. “Tikki is safe with me. Promise. Let’s go.”

“First things first,” interjected Marinette’s mother, before kissing her daughter on the cheek. Her father pulled her into a hug, letting her go only when she let out an embarrassing squeak.

“I’m not going forever…” said Marinette to the ground, a frown pulling at her lips for the first time since her parents had accepted her plan. But it didn’t last, and she was soon looking back at her friend. “Okay. Let’s actually go this time.”

Tikki smiled sweetly and squeezed Marinette’s hands. Marinette closed her eyes and immediately started muttering, using the words to prop up her magic. Tikki was silent, and for several moments Marinette fell into intense concentration, the slight pull of magic at her gut the only sensation she attended to. She created her vessel in the likeness of herself, but as a teenager. A mortal human. She felt a little surge of giddiness and had to remind herself to concentrate. But that moment of lucidity made her more aware of her surroundings, and she began to hear voices around her.

“No, you can’t break their concentration right now-” Her mother’s voice. She sounded almost panicked.

“No! Tikki, block it out. You have to keep concentrating.” Her father. Marinette could feel her own concentration breaking.

“Hey, Tikki, are you really leaving?” A voice Marinette couldn’t put to a face. It was whiny. And very close. Too close. Tikki’s grip around her hands tightened.

“Tikki. Concentrate.” Her mother again. Her voice was intense, still panicked but now with an authoritative edge. “And you-”

But Marinette could feel the magic stumbling, and she immediately blocked all other sounds out. She couldn’t mess this up for Tikki. She would have to ask about it later.

Marinette’s head began swimming. She felt something pulling at the edges of her being, and she wondered if that was Tikki trying to confine her soul. She felt like she was being split apart, piece by piece, but without the pain. Except for her head. She had a splitting headache.

As she became more and more connected with her vessel, the pull to the human plane became stronger. Tikki was farther behind her, so she stopped to wait for the other to catch up. She kept her eyes closed to maintain a connection to the spell, but she could hear the voices again. They tapped at her head like sledgehammers and she could no longer tell them apart. She hoped the headache would go away when she reawoke.

“-thing’s wrong. Look at her.”

“Is Tikki going to be okay?”

“It’s not Tikki we have to worry about.”

Marinette felt that she was connected to the ground by a single string. She blocked everything out, grimacing through the pulsing in her head. She was almost done.

For a moment, Marinette hesitated. She couldn’t remember what to do next. She opened her eyes in a panic, but she couldn’t see anything. She could only feel herself being pulled down, like metal to a magnet. She slammed her eyes shut, giving the last push on instinct, and suddenly she felt a presence being pulled next to her.

Her headache finally overtook her, and she let her mind experience the bliss that was nothingness.

 

“Marinette! Marinette, wake up! We’re here.”

Marinette opened her eyes, looking around in confusion. Her head was pounding. Where was she?

“Marinette?” the voice called again. Her eyes finally landed on another girl, standing above her and looking concerned.

“Where’s… ‘here’?” she asks. Her voice confused her.

“Earth!”

She blinked again, bringing her hand up to her forehead. “Earth? And who are you?”

The other girl frowned. “It’s me, Tikki.”

Marinette stared at her, no look of recognition passing her face. “Who?”

“Huh? Marinette, what do you mean?”

“I don’t…” Her head pounded again. She closed her eyes and winced. “My head hurts.”

The other girl didn’t respond, and Marinette took that as the end of the conversation. She couldn’t _think_ like this. She felt herself sinking to the ground, and she kept her eyes closed. There was a sound far off to her right, and she could hear the other girl’s sharp intake of breath. And then footsteps. And voices all talking at once. She groaned, trying to keep her head from exploding. She curled into a ball, putting her hands on her head. The chaos outside her head seemed to subside and she could hear single voices. But nothing they were saying made sense to her.

“I-I think I messed up! I’m so sorry!”

“What’s wrong with her?” The stern female voice was too loud, and Marinette pressed her hands against her ears. But she couldn’t block out the sounds.

“I don’t know. Sh-sh-she woke up, asked a few questions, and then complained about her head hurting.”

Marinette could hear tears in the other girl’s voice, and she wanted to help her. But another pound of her head reminded her that she was not in a state to help anyone.

“How do we fix it?”

“We can’t unless we destroy the vessel.”

“But if we did that-”

“She wouldn’t have enough power to return here again.” A new, deeper voice joined the conversation.

Marinette felt a flash of panic at those words. Her head was spinning, and she couldn’t even figure out why it mattered, but she managed to stutter out a feeble, “No.”

The voices all fell silent, but another stabbing pain kept Marinette from thinking further. She groaned again. The voices started fading away.

“What’s happening to her?”

“I don’t think her memories carried over.”

“Why is she in _pain_?”

“Her vessel is overcompensating. This has… happened before. It’s fabricating memories.”

“She’ll be okay. But she won’t remember who she really is or why she’s really here.”

“Oh Marinette. I’m so sorry.”

She felt a pressure on her back. Hands. Small hands. The other girl was comforting her? The conversation seemed so far away at this point that she thought the speakers had been walking away. But someone was touching her, and she couldn’t even respond.

“It wasn’t your fault, Tikki. You were distracted.”

“But now we’re all here- and Marinette is-!”

“We’ll research it. For now...”

The words continued, but Marinette couldn’t understand them anymore. She felt her consciousness fading away, and she accepted the darkness as it rushed over her.


	3. Of the very instant that I saw you

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You all may not care about family interaction as much as I do, so fear not: Adrien is finally here. Well, for a little bit. At the end. He'll be a bigger presence from now on, promise.

Marinette rolled over, a small groan escaping her as she opened her eyes. The fall air streamed into her room, painting it with a beautiful pale light. But the beauty of the scene was lost on Marinette, too caught up in attempting to force her body awake. She finally managed to sit up, rubbing her eyes as she looked around the room again. For a moment, she was seized with the idea that this room wasn’t hers, couldn’t be hers. Her room was lighter and brighter and so completely _different_ \- but no, this was certainly her room. She blinked again, wondering if she was confusing dreams with reality again. She’d been doing that a lot since they moved into this house.

“Marinette! Are you awake yet?” a small voice called from down the stairs.

Marinette sighed, finally pushing herself out of bed. She didn’t have time for weird dreams right now. “Yes! I’m awake. Unfortunately,” she called back.

“Unfortunately?” asked the same voice, much closer this time. “Shouldn’t you be happy? First day of school!”

Marinette watched her younger sister jump up and down in the doorway of her room, a smile sneaking onto her face. Her sister was often weirdly mature for her age, but her age always seemed to show more clearly when she was excited. She would always get excited over the most mundane things.

“It’s too early to be that happy, Tikki. And besides, I’ve gone to school before. It’s just a new year.”

Something flickered in her sister’s face, but it was gone so quickly Marinette wondered if she even saw it. Her smile was all teeth and sunshine. “But it’s a new school, too! Maybe you’ll meet someone special!” The little girl spun into the room, grabbing Marinette’s hands and spinning her around as well. Marinette laughed, allowing herself to be spun in two full circles before pulling away.

“I’ll never be ready on time at this rate. And you don’t want me late for my first day at a new school, do you? At that rate I’ll never make friends.”

“But you’re so nice and cute and funny and amazing!” Tikki almost seemed indignant, putting her hands on her hips. “Of course you’ll make friends.”

“Not if I don’t talk to anyone because I’m late. Out, out, out,” she replied in a mock-stern voice, smiling as she shooed the girl out of her room. Tikki just laughed as she bounded down the stairs, to where their parents were probably eating their own breakfast. Now fully awake, Marinette started getting ready. She _was_ excited about today: she had spent hours last night agonizing over the perfect outfit, which resulted in her grogginess this morning. But she knew it was worth it as she got dressed, and finally gave herself one last look over in the mirror. She didn’t consider herself a vain person, but something about designing had a magnetic pull she couldn’t resist. And seeing a design come out so nicely was such a good feeling.

Her stomach growling interrupted her admiring the skirt, a piece she was particularly proud of, and she took the cue and headed downstairs. She was greeted by the delicious smell of fresh bread, and she poked her head into the kitchen to find her father carefully cutting a still-warm loaf. She smiled as she snuck into the room, approaching her unaware father. But as her hand reached out to try and steal a piece, his moved to grab hers without even turning to look at her. She pouted as he finally turned to her with his own mischievous smile.

“History has shown stealing a loaf of bread is generally more trouble than it’s worth, Marinette. Are you sure you’re ready to pay that price?”

“It’s not stealing if it’s mine!”

“And who said this was yours? Maybe I made this for myself.”

“How did you even see me coming?”

His eyes glinted as he replied with a solemn face. “I have powers beyond your comprehension.”

“Lame jokes and impressive baking skills don’t count as beyond my comprehension,” Marinette teased, laughing lightly. She finally plucked a piece of the loaf with her other hand and immediately hurried back a few steps, exclaiming in triumph. Her father only chuckled, losing any semblance of seriousness, and turned to the cabinet to grab some jam. He handed it to her with a look towards the doorway and she took the hint, skipping into the next room with the jar in hand. She placed it on the table next to her mother, stooping slightly to kiss her mother’s cheek before sitting in the chair next to her. She took a bite of the still-warm bread in her hands, giggling at the raised eyebrow her mother gave her.

“You’re bright and early,” the woman commented, deciding not to bring up the stolen food.

“Tikki wanted to make sure I was awake,” Marinette replied, mouth still half-full. Her mother gave her an admonishing look and she swallowed with a guilty smile.

“Ah. I thought I heard her yelling.”

“Today’s an important day!” defended the younger girl, giving a significant look to their mother. “If today doesn’t go as hoped, we’ll have to rethink everything.”

“That seems a bit dramatic,” Marinette said lightly, not noticing the staring contest going on between her mother and sister, instead giving her attention to the coffee on the table. She grabbed a cup, taking a long sip from it before sighing contentedly.

“Is Tikki being oh-so-serious again?” asked Marinette’s father, walking into the room with a tray of toast.

“She really should lighten up and act her age, don’t you think?” asked her mother, though she was looking right at Tikki as she said it.

“Our daughter can act however she wants! She just needs to learn to enjoy this life for herself,” he replied easily, setting the tray in the center of the table. “So, not the fanciest ‘first day of school’ breakfast, but delicious anyway. Hurry up and eat so you can get to school.”

Marinette was oblivious to the strange antics of her family, taking a piece of toast and liberally applying jam. She had no idea how he did it, but the bread her father made was heaven every time. She melted a little into her first bite, feeling bliss on her tongue despite the simplicity of the meal. She quickly devoured the food, taking only short breaks to sip her coffee. She didn’t need to be in a rush, not yet at least, but she couldn’t help it. She was excited, and every movement that got her closer to the school only amped it up. As she sat her newly empty cup on the table again with a satisfied sigh, she stood and ran back upstairs to grab her backpack.

She was down the stairs in a flash, having put the bag by her room door, and she came back to the middle of a conversation that must have started as she left the room.

“There will be other opportunities,” her father was saying, voice lower than it had been in a while.

“Or what if she meets him and she doesn’t even care?” her sister said, sounding much too grave for a little girl. Maybe her mom was right.

“That’s not going to happen. We can’t tell the future, so let’s just take things as we come to them,” replied her father, seeming to put an end to the conversation.

But Marinette was curious. “Wait, what’s not going to happen?”

Everyone at the table turned to look at her with surprise, and she waved sheepishly. Guess she snuck up too quietly.

“Tikki was worried about her book characters,” Marinette’s mother replied, the first to recover from her initial shock.

Marinette grinned, looking at Tikki who only frowned. “So serious about fictional characters?”

“But y- the main character has to meet him soon, or everything she did was a waste! It’s already been a week,” Tikki replied, quieter.

Marinette’s grin softened. “I’m sure it’ll work out. Love always does in the end! ...This _is_ a love thing, right?”

“I should hope so,” her father interjected with a chuckle.

Marinette was slightly confused by the comment, but the conversation seemed to be over. So she waved, ready to depart. “Then I guess I’m off! Wish me luck?”

That comment seemed to amuse her entire family, but they all wished her the best and she was soon out the door, walking in the brisk morning air. She could feel a small knot of anxiety in her stomach, but it was mostly overcome by the bubbling excitement in her chest. There was a skip in her step and a tingling in the tips of her fingers. She knew it would be hard, not knowing anyone, but something about this whole event seemed so novel that she couldn’t bring herself to care quite yet.

She had traced the route to school in her head at least fifty times, so she was free to daydream as she walked. She wondered what her teachers would be like, who would be in her class, if she’d have to deal with being by herself for a long time before she made friends. The last one made the knot in her stomach feel heavier, and she quickly left it behind. Instead, she imagined late nights giggling with a group of girls, lunches spent in a library working on group projects, and weekends at the park. She sighed, a happy smile gracing her face.

Marinette was so involved in her daydreams that she missed the dark shape darting past her to her left, but she didn’t miss its effects. She was thrown off balance, and found herself quickly falling forwards. She tried to right herself, but overcorrected and ended up on the ground anyway, falling flat on her ass instead of her face. She sighed, not completely unused to falling over. Sometimes she found herself moving as if she was new to her body, limbs flailing in ways they definitely did not need to. And yet sometimes she moved with an otherworldly grace. Right then was obviously one of the former times. She heaved herself up, checking her skirt for damage. Satisfied that it was alright, she finally took in her surroundings enough to realize she was outside the school. And incredibly early.

She decided to sit on the front steps, just for a few minutes until people began to show up, taking the moment to wonder what could have pushed her over. There wasn’t any wind, and she was sure she would have noticed another person run past. She wondered if it was a small animal, or something. She glanced around, but found that nothing around the school was moving. Giving up on the mystery, Marinette began absently daydreaming again.

People began trickling into the school, some giving a curious glance at Marinette but most ignoring her. She offered a smile to any who happened to look at her, and even to some that didn’t. Deciding that there were now enough people at school, she stood and turned to go inside. But a dark movement to her right caught her attention, and she immediately turned to look. She zeroed in on the shape, and watched it dart away, around the side of the building. Without thinking, she rushed after it, curious as to what it could possibly be. It seemed to move too fast to be an animal. She darted down the steps, about to turn a sharp corner and pursue when she instead ran directly into a student attempting to enter the school building, sending her towards the ground for the second time that morning.

Her eyes were shut in shock from running into someone. But instead of landing ungracefully yet again, an arm found its way around her waist and caught her, a bright “Woah, are you okay?” accompanying it.

She opened her eyes, prepared to assure the voice she was fine and then excuse herself to chase after the shadow. She was prepared for a lot of things, but the moment she opened her eyes every thought she had ever had flew from her head, leaving her staring in shock.

A brilliant pair of green eyes stared back, narrowed slightly in concern. “Are you okay?” he repeated, and Marinette’s eyes widened as she realized she had still said nothing.

“Y-yes! Yes, I’m so sorry, but I saw something I was trying to follow but it escaped and I probably wouldn’t have been trying to follow it except for the fact that I think I also saw it earlier today, so I was more interested in it when I saw it again and-” Marinette cut herself off suddenly, wondering why she couldn’t stop spewing words. “Sorry,” she finished lamely, staring down at her shoes.

He only laughed, finally releasing her. She took several small steps backwards, a blush darkening her face. “I’m glad you’re okay.”

“But I was the one who ran into you! I should be saying that,” she replied hastily, her head snapping up to look at him again.

“Then I’m glad we’re both okay.” And then he smiled, and Marinette thought she might fall over all on her own this time. The smile faded to a frown, though, and she had to stop herself from actually verbally expressing her disappointment. “I wonder what you could have seen, though.”

“Probably just a stray cat or something! I was really just curious,” she offered, laughing awkwardly. His frown was still on his face, and something unreadable flickered in his eyes, so she tried to continue the conversation, desperate for a glimpse of that expression again. “I-I’m Marinette, by the way. I just moved here.”

His smile was back, and Marinette felt almost giddy. “Adrien. New, huh? I didn’t think I recognized you. If you want, I could show you the school later. But now I should probably get to class, so…”

“Oh! Yeah, of course, I’m probably blocking your way, I’ll just-” Marinette darted to the side, still inwardly panicking.

Adrien placed a hand on her to steady her, seemingly concerned that she was going to fall again. Once she proved to him that she was going to stay still, and might not ever be able to move again because _he was touching her_ , he released her. “Want to meet here at lunch so I can show you around? You’ll have to wander a bit the first half of the day, but for the second half you’ll be an expert.”

“Yes!” she immediately replied, and then recoiled at her own enthusiasm. “I mean, yes, that would be nice. Thank you.”

“See you later then, Marinette!” he called as he walked away, a wave of the hand offered as a parting gift.

Marinette stood there, entranced, managing a weak wave of her own. She really liked the way he said her name. She really liked the way he waved. She really liked his _smile_. Good Lord, his smile. She was positive you could reanimate the dead with it.

In the wake of his presence, Marinette had forgotten everything she had ever thought or said or known. But now she was certain of one thing, at least. She knew she was screwed. Absolutely screwed.

 


	4. Wit turned to folly

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yeah, the title and all the chapter titles are all just out of context Shakespeare quotes. I like Shakespeare.

Marinette wondered for the umpteenth time how she had ever possibly gotten so lucky. She was seated just behind _him_ in class. It might have been awkward, seeing him again just moments after their initial encounter, but she had been so frozen to the spot after that meeting that she hadn’t run into the room until just after class had started, and so didn’t have to talk to him. The teacher had given her a look, but, it being the first day of school, hadn’t said anything and had left her to make her way to a seat.

Or, that’s what should have happened. Instead, Marinette found herself staring at him, frozen again, until the teacher stopped, mid-sentence, to ask her what was wrong. She felt the daggers in the woman’s gaze and had quickly run to the closest open seat. And that was where her luck had turned. Because she had run into the seat directly behind him, and she could now stare all she wanted.

She knew she should probably pay attention. She knew she should probably stop staring. But, oh gods, his hair looked so soft and Marinette could just imagine running her fingers through it as he laid his head on her chest and slowly slipped into unconsciousness, feeling safe in her arms-

She stopped that daydream in its tracks, a deep blush forming on her face. It was too much for her heart to handle.

Marinette did not consider herself a vain person. But Marinette was an artist at heart, and that meant she appreciated the beautiful things in life. And Adrien was the most beautiful thing she had ever seen. It was just that. Just… just an aesthetic appreciation.

She watched as the corner of his mouth pulled down slightly and he shook his head, anxiously tapping his pencil against his notebook, and was immediately seized with an intense urge to comfort him. She clenched her fists, sitting up a little straighter.

Just an aesthetic appreciation.

He wrinkled his nose a little, annoyed or displeased over something. She finally wrenched her eyes away, unable to handle the image.

She was so screwed. He was so cute and she was so screwed. He was so cute and she was so screwed and he was turning to look at her and he was talking but she couldn’t stop staring at him and oh this was bad, this was very bad. He was staring up at her, an expectant look on his face, and she finally pulled herself together enough to stammer out a sentence.

“Uh, erm, I-I’m sorry- could you repeat? That?” She grabbed the edge of the table to keep herself from smacking herself in the face. She sounded like an idiot. What was happening.

His brows drew together a bit and he smiled a confused smile, laughing a little. “You must be out of it,” he replied, and she nodded numbly. “It’s lunch, so I was asking if you still wanted me to show you around the school.”

“Yes!” she yelled. Her eyes widened and she shrunk into herself a little, realizing how horrifically loud it came out, finally giving into the urge to smack herself in the face. She raked her hand down her face, grumbling from behind it (at a reasonable volume), “I mean. Yes, that would be very nice, thank you.” She then closed her eyes and vainly wished for a random lightning strike to end her miserable existence.

“...Um. Are you feeling alright?” came his voice, much too close. She opened one eye, only to be greeted by Adrien leaning in, looking at her worriedly. She closed the eye again.

“No. Not really.” The words came out surprisingly calm, now that she couldn’t see him.

“Then we can go to the nurse’s room first.”

Marinette found her eyes flying open, surprise taking over embarrassment. “You still want to show me around?”

He tilted his head slightly, raising a brow. “Do you… not want to?”

“No, I just thought you would think I’m weird,” she blurted before she could stop herself. She sat on her hands to keep them from pulling her hair out, because every word out of her mouth was painful enough.

But then he was laughing, and she could feel herself melting, a stupid smile claiming its space on her face. “Maybe a little. But you don’t feel well, so you get a pass.”

She nodded, entranced. She probably would have nodded even if he had called her the most annoying person he had ever had the misfortune to meet, because he was laughing and smiling and his words didn’t really matter in that moment.

“You really seem out of it, though. Are you going to make it to the nurse’s room?”

She managed to nod, pushing out her chair and standing on shaking legs.

“Then let’s go?” he asked, offering her his arm. She stared at the arm for a long moment before it clicked in her head that she was supposed to take it. Which meant she’d have to touch him. She finally reached out to grab it, but looked away for fear of spontaneously combusting. She heard a small chuckle from Adrien, but then he was moving towards the door and she was following, clinging onto his arm for dear life. Probably because she couldn’t see because she refused to look anywhere near him.

She somehow made it to the nurse’s room without exploding, imploding, combusting or facing any other cataclysmic disaster, though she did stumble at one point, which brought her closer to death than she had ever faced. The stumbling was embarrassing, but her cause of death would have been a heart attack from the _wink_ that he gave her as he affirmed that she was alright.

She sat down heavily on the small bed, feeling extremely faint. When she said she needed the nurse’s room earlier, she was lying, but now she was grateful for it. She wouldn’t be able to get through an entire tour of the school with him. There was no way.

“Well, this is the nurse’s office. For all your nursing needs,” he said in his best impression of a tour guide.

“And that concludes your tour, because she looks like she might pass out any minute. What did you do to her?” came a voice from the doorway. A woman with glasses and red ombre hair walked into the room, pinning Adrien with a dubious expression. He smiled sheepishly.

“Miss Alya, I didn’t do anything.”

“This time,” she accused, setting down her lunch on the counter. She seemed young, no more than 6 or 7 years older than Marinette herself, but as Miss Alya rummaged through cabinets with familiarity, Marinette realized she must be the nurse.

“He really didn’t do anything,” Marinette protested weakly, earning a smile from Adrien. Her heart sped up and she tried to return the smile, but it came out too big, too excited. Something in the back of her brain wondered what it was that had the nurse so suspicious of Adrien, but the larger, lovestruck part of her quickly silenced that questioning voice.

The nurse turned from a staring contest with Adrien to look over Marinette with a critical eye. Marinette flushed and shrunk into herself a little at the intense look, and the nurse softened.

“You’re new here. I’m the nurse, as you’ve probably figured out. But just call me Alya.” She offered a smile and Marinette found herself smiling back, feeling comfortable with the woman’s straightforwardness. “So, what’s the problem?”

“Huh? Oh! Uh- lightheadedness?”

“No fever? Your face is flushed.”

Marinette’s eyes betrayed her as they flicked over to Adrien. It was a minuscule movement, just a moment in time, but the knowing smile on Alya’s face made Marinette’s face flush even further.

“Okay, so no fever,” Alya said, her smile morphing into a smirk. “I think I know the problem.” She turned around, opened a cabinet, grabbed a paper cup, and filled it with water as she spoke. She walked over to Marinette’s side, who was looking at her curiously. “I think you’re just a bit _thirsty_ ,” she said as she handed the cup over, smile absolutely devious.

Marinette’s eyes widened, but she took the cup in horrified silence, drinking it down as a distraction. She didn’t dare look at Adrien’s face.

“The lightheadedness and flush were probably from dehydration,” Alya explained to Adrien, though the look the two girls shared communicated that they both understood that it wasn’t. “I only have these paper cups, go buy a water bottle.”

Adrien looked like he was about to protest, but then he glanced at Marinette, who only looked worse than she had a moment ago, and he nodded and turned to go. “Alya will take care of you while I’m gone, and then we can continue our tour,” he called as he left.

The second he was out of the room Alya was cackling. “Ooh, you have it bad. And you just got here, too.”

“I- Is this how you treat all of your students?” Marinette’s voice was more steady and able to take on an indignant tone now that Adrien was out of the room.

“I’m hardly an authority figure. I’m not even the real nurse, I’m just filling in. Though I’ve been “filling in” for two years now.” She sat down beside Marinette on the bed, looking over at her with a smirk. “He’s a real heartbreaker, you know. Plenty of fans. But you seem sweet, so I’ll root for you.”

“I-I-I hardly know what you’re talking about!” protested Marinette, but the words fell on deaf ears.

“He has an ego though. He pretends he doesn’t, but he’s well aware of his pretty face.”

“We just met! I don’t… I mean, I hardly know him, so… you don’t… need to… tell me this.”

“Better to know now rather than later, hm?” offered Alya with a wink, and Marinette stared at her, not knowing how to react. Alya just patted her on the head. “He seems to have taken an interest in you, so good job. What’d you do?”

“I ran into him?” Marinette replied, flushing again at the memory. “Literally. I was chasing a cat or something and I ran into him. I almost fell over.”

“Hm,” was all Alya said in reply, face becoming thoughtful. Marinette was about to ask what she was thinking about when Adrien reappeared in the doorway, water bottle in hand.

“Water for the lady,” he said with a smile, breezing into the room. Marinette took the bottle with shaking hands, aggressively not looking at Alya. That woman was friendly but… weird.

“She’ll be fine soon enough, just don’t overload her, okay?”

“Wouldn’t dream of it, Miss Alya,” he replied, sending her a wide, sweet, innocent smile.

“Your boyish charms don’t work on me, so stop that. And get out, I want to eat. And you probably need to, too.” With that, she turned to her lunch. It seemed like they were dismissed.

Marinette stood up, taking a deep breath, and offered a shy smile to Adrien. “I-I should probably go home to eat. Thank you for walking me here, though!” Her voice was considerably stronger, if only because she bit her tongue to stop herself from rambling on. Still, her face was blushing, and she had to look to the side and take a long drink as she walked out of the office.

“I could walk you home, if you wanted,” he offered, and she whipped around to look at him, gaping in surprise. He was rubbing the back of his head, looking at her hopefully. She closed her mouth and opened it a few times, attempting to squeak out an answer in her surprise, but eventually found herself shaking her head. He watched the entire display with a small smile on his face, but it fell as she denied him.

“S-sorry, I think I just! Need to go! Bye!”

She then turned and bolted away, squeezing her eyes closed. Oh, that was stupid. Why did she say no? Well, she had said no because she might have actually fainted if she had to spend any more time with him, but maybe it was worth it. She began silently berating herself for letting the chance slip through her fingers.

He wanted to walk her home. Alya said he seemed to have taken an interest in her. Maybe he thought she was cute. Maybe he found her inability to form proper sentences endearing rather than weird. Maybe, maybe, maybe-

A black shape darting to her right pulled Marinette out of her daydreams, and she immediately stopped, turning to see what it was. Her thoughts pulled back to the animal from that morning.

She narrowed her eyes, curiosity taking over, and looked around the hallway. Her eyes swept over the area, taking in the total stillness and looking for any sign of movement. She immediately zeroed in to the shape darting around the corner at the end of the hall, and took off after it with no warning more than a shouted, “There!”

She felt her heart rate speed up, the adrenaline kicking in as she burst out of the school, the animal now closer than before. But it was still too far to tell what it was, so she pushed herself just a little harder, putting on another burst of speed. She wondered if she was accidentally terrorizing a poor animal by chasing it around, and found herself slowing down as she skidded around a corner. She was planning on turning around, but as she took in the view before her that plan crumbled into dust.

The animal had led her to a large group of its family- except, they weren’t animals. She could see that now. She didn’t know _what_ they were, but she felt her pulse spike and fear grip her heart. She wanted to run, but as she turned she found there were more creatures behind her as well. Having no way of escape, Marinette took the chance to study the creatures as they surrounded her. They were all black, but they didn’t seem to have a solid shape. Their edges seemed to blur into mist and their limbs seemed to fade away into shadow. She caught the gaze of one of the creatures, solid purple irises paralyzing her entire body. She couldn’t even breathe but she couldn’t look away. She knew the creatures were all looking at her with curiosity, but the longer she stood here without moving the closer they got. She didn’t think anything good would happen when they touched her.

The jolt of that thought was enough to tear her gaze from the purple abyss, and she quickly looked around her, trying to form an escape plan.

A ring of amorphous creates surrounded her. It was broad daylight, but no one was around. They were getting closer. Oh god, there were even some in the tree.

 _The tree_. A plan suddenly formed in her mind and she leapt up, grabbing a low hanging branch and pulling herself up. She didn’t waste time on her new vantage point, leaping off and landing outside the ring of creatures, and then she was off.

She ran until she was standing outside the door to her own home, panting and heaving for breath. She was suddenly grateful for the water bottle still clutched in her hand, and drank it down with greedy gulps. She entered her house once she had emptied the bottle, still trying to catch her breath. Her sister was the only one in the kitchen as she entered it, immediately going for a cup and filling it with water. She drank two or three while Tikki looked on in confusion. She took a deep breath and finally sat down across from her sister, who looked extremely worried.

“You’ll never believe what just happened,” she started, but she stopped as she saw another movement out of the corner of her eyes. She turned around violently, coming face to face with the same creature she had been chasing before. It had followed her home. She had led it straight to her family.

She grabbed Tikki and ran, wryly thinking that maybe the girl _would_ believe what had just happened.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have a philosophy paper due but I wrote this instead whoopsies


	5. As great as that you fear

“Marinette, what’s happening?” asked Tikki, panic in her voice. Marinette just kept moving forward, running up the stairs to her room and slamming the door behind her.

“Monsters,” she replied once she made sure the door was locked, grabbing random things around the room and piling them in front of her door. She wasn’t sure if it would even help, but it made her feel better.

She was so caught up in the task that she missed the moment of conflict on Tikki’s face. When the girl spoke, it was more curious than scared. “What did they look like?”

“Black, not much bigger than a housepet, no real shape. They all had different colored eyes.” Marinette shuddered as she recalled the purple eyes of that one creature. The one that was downstairs. She got back to moving again, dragging a desk across the floor.

Tikki just sat on the bed, kicking her legs contemplatively. “You could probably fight it,” she finally said.

Marinette looked up, face red from exertion. “Tikki, I can barely move this desk. I can’t fight that- that  _thing_.” She went back to dragging the furniture, letting out a frustrated groan for emphasis.

“I could probably make it leave, but you could make it never come back…” Tikki muttered, feeling guilt rise up again.

“What are you talking about?” Marinette asked, sounding winded. She gave the desk one last shove and then stepped back, turning to look at Tikki.

Tikki opened her mouth to reply, but instead of an explanation she yelled “Watch out!” as the door to the room was blown off its hinges. Thanks to Tikki’s warning, Marinette was able to jump back and avoid getting knocked out, but as she scrambled to the edge of the room, she didn’t really count it as a blessing.

“Marinette! You have to do something!” Tikki looked extremely nervous, but even as she ran across the room to join Marinette she didn’t look at now-open doorway where three creatures stood. She just stared up at Marinette with a pleading look.

“I don’t know what to do!” She tried to keep the panic from seeping into her voice, but the creatures were crawling over her hastily constructed barricade without much difficulty.

Tikki’s pleading gaze flickered with conflict for a moment, and then she looked up at Marinette with a frown. “You have power! You just don’t know it! I- I’m not your sister, I’m a god who came to help you unlock that power!”

Marinette thought that she had already dealt with enough fantastic bullshit today, but apparently not. “You-  _what_?”

“No time to explain! You need to fight them!”

“ _How_?” she yelled, whirling around to watch the creatures. They had her cornered now. She pushed Tikki behind her, keeping her arms splayed out in a futile attempt to at least keep them from her sister. Or… maybe not her sister. She didn’t have the brain space to consider that right now.

“You can bless them, and the positive energy should disrupt their negative energy. Try kissing them?” Tikki sounded unsure. It didn’t reassure Marinette in the least.

Marinette wanted to protest, but there was really nothing else she could do right now. “Where?”

“Forehead. Try to focus your thoughts into a blessing.” Tikki was clinging to her legs now, peering around to watch the monsters as they got closer. Her voice was calm, but her hands were gripping the material of Marinette’s skirt tightly, so Marinette could tell she was scared. She steeled herself, wanting to protect Tikki, and took a deep breath.

The creatures hadn’t attacked her. They hadn’t done anything other than stand around and menacingly creep closer, technically, but Marinette could feel the malicious intent heavy in the air. But if she was going to keep Tikki safe, she would have to get closer.

She ran forward, immediately going for the one in front. She reached down and grabbed it, feeling an electric shudder run down her arm from touching it. Her hand felt as if it were grabbing water, but she didn’t hesitate to lean down and place her lips in between its eyes. She felt a warmth surge from her chest to her lips, and when she looked down, the creature had turned completely white, emitting a pure light. The light intensified to an almost blinding degree and then was gone. Marinette stared down at the space where it had been, her hands still poised to hold a being that wasn’t there anymore, completely dumbfounded.

The other creatures took advantage of her hesitance and converged on her. Marinette was thrown to the ground, and when she looked up her eyes caught the same purple eyes from before and she felt the fear seize her once more. She struggled to get away, but the creature on top of her was a heavy weight on her chest despite its small stature. She felt fear weighing down her limbs and soon she wasn’t moving, lost in a deep purple chasm. Her breathing became shallow and something in her mind was trying to yell, to run, to attack, but all she could do was stare.

The part of her still conscious heard the cries and sounds of a struggle coming from just a few feet away, but she couldn’t react. As she fell farther into the creature’s gaze, her vision swam, her head buzzed, and her body became numb. The only thing she could still feel was the erratic, frantic beating of her heart in her chest. The pounding kept her in reality, sending shockwaves through her entire being, reminding her of the feeling of fear and helplessness. She wanted to close her eyes and escape, but she couldn’t look away. Didn’t dare.

Marinette had no idea how long she’d been stuck when she heard a voice yell, “Get  _away_  from her!” A small fist knocked the creature to the side, breaking their eye contact, and Marinette’s consciousness rushed back, leaving her panting on the ground. Her hand reached up to grip her chest, eyes wide as she felt her heart try to escape her chest. But she couldn’t dwell on it, because Tikki was yelling and rushing at the creature and Marinette had to stop it.

She struggled to her feet, pushing away any hesitance and lunging towards the monster. Tikki was thrown to the side easily, and Marinette surged forward, feeling anger bubble up at seeing Tikki get hurt. She reached out to grab the creature, and leaned down to place a kiss on its head. But nothing happened.

It forced her away and for a moment she was convinced she was going to be trapped again, and she snapped her eyes shut, bringing her arms up to protect herself.

“Marinette! You have to bless it!” Tikki’s voice was strangled, and Marinette’s eyes sprang open, zoning in on Tikki backed against a wall in a moment.

“It didn’t work!” she said, watching in horror. She shook her head and ran to grab the creature again, not wanting it to hurt Tikki.

“Not kiss. Bless,” replied Tikki, voice coming out in a rush. “Positive energy. No anger, hate, fear, sadness.”

Marinette didn’t think she could manage that, but as her hand wrapped around the body of the creature and she felt the same electric surge, she cleared her mind. She closed her eyes as she bent down, and her lips touched the creature’s forehead gently. She felt the same surge of warmth as before, and when she opened her eyes the creature was gone.

She looked around her room, took in the door laying on her desk, the feathers spilling out of her pillow, the burn mark on her wall, and she felt manic laughter creep its way out of her throat and into the charged air. She collapsed onto her rumpled bed, legs refusing to stand for another moment, and cradled her head as her panicked laughter left her in waves. She blinked, realizing there were tears spilling from her eyes, and started wiping the water away, still laughing. Tikki was looking at her with concern, but Marinette couldn’t offer any explanation.

“My room is destroyed,” she finally managed between bubbles of laughter. “My room is destroyed and I just vaporized two shadow monsters. You punched one in the face.”

Tikki looked around the room with an apologetic frown. “I fought the other one off as well. That’s where the majority of this… sorry. I can fix it.”

“Of course you can. Because you’re apparently not my sister.” Marinette’s tone was incredulous and too-high pitched, and Tikki was worried she was broken. Laughter didn’t seem the appropriate reaction to this scenario.

“Just… make a wish. That everything is fixed.”

Marinette closed her eyes, still in a state of shock. She kept them closed for a moment, making a wish, and then opened her eyes. Tikki smiled as a faintly pink light illuminated the room, restoring it to its previous state. Marinette’s eyes traced the places where the damage had been repaired, and found herself taking a shuddering breath. The mania of the previous moment was gone, and she felt a heavy burden settle on her shoulders.

“Explanation time.” Marinette could feel the tears drying on her face and her heart returning to a normal speed, and though she knew it was nearing the end of lunch time, if it wasn’t already over, she didn’t think she was going back today.

“Ask me anything,” Tikki replied, sitting in the middle of the room.

“Why do I think you’re my sister?”

“False memories,” Tikki answered, seemingly happy that that was the question.

“What about my parents?”

Tikki’s face took on a guilty look, and she looked down sheepishly. “They… also have false memories.”

Marinette thought that made sense, so she just nodded. “And you’re a god?”

“Yes. More or less. I’m a being from another plane who took on a vessel and came to earth.”

Marinette found herself accepting the information easily. After that, she might as well. “Why?”

“To help you.”

“Why me?”

Tikki hesitated in answering. When she finally spoke, her voice was small. “Those things are demons. They exist here by feeding off of negative emotions of humanity, but they can use any type of power. You have a lot of it, so they’re going to target you. They won’t be a problem for you as long as you can access your power.”

“My power? You mean the blessing?” Marinette had a hard time believing that she could possibly hold great power. She was just a teenage girl, right?

“No. There’s more than that. A lot. But… you might not be able to access it. I don’t know.” Marinette could feel that Tikki was hiding things from her, but she looked so uncomfortable that she just dropped it. Maybe it was god business, and she obviously had no right to pry there.

“Is it… normal for me to be able to battle these demons?”

“No. Normal humans can’t even see them. You’re special, Marinette.”

Marinette was quiet for a moment, and then just sighed and let herself fall to the side, curling up on her bed. “I think I need a nap.”

Tikki nodded, standing up and heading to the door. “I’ll tell your parents what happened when they get home.”

“No!” Marinette bolted upright, eyes wide. “You can’t just- just tell them that.”

Tikki looked conflicted for a moment. “Okay,” she finally responded. “I’ll tell them that you feel sick.”

Marinette nodded in relief and slumped down again, feeling exhausted by all that had happened. She slowly drifted into a deep yet restless sleep, her brain trying to integrate the new information into her idea of the world. She felt pinpricks of fear still flowing through her veins, even in her unconscious state, but no nightmare could have matched the reality she had faced, so she at least had a dreamless sleep.

She awoke a few hours later, head pounding, but feeling at least a little more grounded. For a brief moment she imagined that everything had been a dream, but she knew that that couldn’t be true. She swallowed thickly, feeling the dry sting of her throat and remembering the fear she had felt underneath that demon, and she was sure that she couldn’t have invented that. She knew that she had never felt nor imagined anything that could have compared.

Not wanting to dwell on those thoughts, she jumped out of bed and immediately went about straightening up her room. Tikki had repaired the damage, but the scattered papers and clothes hadn’t moved. She picked up her school bag and put it upright against the wall, looking at it almost guiltily. First day at school and she hadn’t even made it past lunch. Granted, there were extenuating circumstances, but still.

Her mind drifted to Adrien. Did he wonder where she went? Did he even notice her absence? She blushed despite being the only audience to her thoughts, a little embarrassed by how fast she had developed a crush on him. It hadn’t even been a day and she was already wanting to plan the rest of their lives together.

Her head pounded and her throat complained, reminding her that she needed to drink something. As she exited the room, her conversation with the nurse returned to her and she found herself groaning. She was way too obvious, if even a woman she had just met felt the need to comment on it.

Marinette caught a shadowy shape out of the corner of her eye and tensed up, immediately turning to face the interloper. A misplaced boot greeted her, and all she could do was sigh in relief. What was she doing, getting lost thinking about something as simple as a crush when there was something so much more important at hand?

But without an immediate threat, she couldn’t pull her thoughts away from him. She wandered into the kitchen, immersed in her own warring thoughts about cute boys and shadowy figures, and ran directly into her mother. Through an impressive amount of quick thinking on both of their parts, the dishes in the woman’s arms were prevented from toppling to the ground.

“Good evening, sweetie,” greeted her mother with a smile, once the plates were stable once more, though there was concern in her eyes. “Feeling better? You seem out of it.” She brought one hand up to feel Marinette’s forehead, studying her face carefully.

“Uh, yeah. It was just a short… sickness. Just kind of came and went! Yep,” explained Marinette, wincing at her own terrible lying. But her mother didn’t comment on it if she noticed, only dropped her hand and nodded.

“I’m glad you’re feeling better, then. But you should sit if you’re still out of it.”

Marinette had to resist the urge to wave off her mother’s advice. She had a headache and a dry throat, but that was not the reason for her inattentiveness. “No, I was just… thinking of someone! Got distracted.”

An interested look took over her mother’s face, and Marinette wondered if that was the right thing to say. Sure, telling a half truth was a lot easier to pull of than lying completely, but at what cost?

“Someone? Who? A boy? Is he in your class?”

The cost would be playing twenty questions with a prying parental figure, apparently. Marinette busied herself with grabbing a glass and filling it with water so she didn’t have to look her mother in the eyes as she answered. “Yes, he’s a boy, and yes, he’s in my class, but that’s  _it_. He’s just a classmate.”

“You should bring him home! Introduce him to the family!”

Marinette took a gulp of her water to avoid having to look at the very likely overjoyed expression on her mother’s face. But she couldn’t avoid it forever, so she looked back to her mother and almost winced at the spark of delight in her eyes.

“Mom, we  _just_  met.”

She waved Marinette’s protests off, going back to the sink to wash dishes. “If you already like him enough to be daydreaming about him, then he’s welcome any time.”

Marinette reddened. “I-I wasn’t daydreaming about him!” she defended, even though she totally was.

“What’s his name?”

Marinette set her now empty cup down and crossed her arms, looking off to the side. “Adrien,” she finally forced out.

“Oh, I should tell your father. And Tikki. They’ll be so excited.”

“Mom.”

“Although I should warn you that there are plenty of bad people out there. You should save yourself for the right one. I’m sure you’ll know when you see him.”

“ _Mom!_ ”

The woman laughed at her daughter’s mortified state. “Sorry, sorry.”

“I’m gonna go!” squeaked Marinette, face much too red as she dashed out of the room. She had been trying to get Adrien out of her thoughts earlier, but now it seemed she was doomed to thoughts about him for the rest of the night.

And probably for the rest of her life, considering her mother’s insistence. The woman could be weirdly stubborn, and Marinette was sure that she’d be hearing comments about introducing him until she actually did. Which wouldn’t be for a very long time, because Marinette still couldn’t form a sentence around him, much less invite him to her house.

_Oh Adrien, I know we just met, but I’m incredibly in love with you and my family noticed, so they want to meet you! So won’t you please come over to spend time with me and my little-sister-who-is-apparently-a-god and hope we’re not attacked by shadowy demons?_

Yeah. That would be just  _great_.

Marinette’s mind spun, and once she was in the safety of her room she sat heavily in her chair, letting out a large sigh. Why had things gotten so complicated so quickly? Something in her head only said it was going to get worse from here on in. Despite her best efforts, she couldn’t really convince herself that voice was wrong.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For those that are confused: Tikki just straight up lies to Marinette during her explanation. She's scared to see Marinette in pain again after seeing what happened the first time with the memories, so she panics and just gives the best explanation that fits into the false life Marinette is living. 
> 
> She tells the truth when she can, but don't be confused about the conflicting info! c:


	6. Blunt not the heart

Marinette sat heavily in her seat, glancing around the classroom with apprehension. She hadn’t seen either of the two things on her mind yet this morning, and it made her jumpy. The demons she was glad to be rid of, but the other thing… She wasn’t sure how to feel about not seeing him. She was grateful for the chance to breathe without making a fool of herself, but there was a deep disappointment sitting on her shoulders, despite the realization that she should be seeing him soon. Every moment was breathless anticipation, and all she could do was shuffle her papers around and tap her pencil in agitation.

But the weight was immediately lifted as he walked into the room a few minutes later, glancing around until he caught sight of her. His face brightened considerably as he spotted her, and hers did too in response, though less in a happy way and more in a “red” way.

“Marinette! You do know we come back after lunch, right?” he teased, slipping into his seat, but his grin was relieved more than anything else. He twisted in his seat, planting his elbows on her desk and leaning on his arms, looking up at her patiently.

Marinette nodded, taking a deep breath before responding. “I was sick?” she offered, smiling unconvincingly. Adrien nodded, accepting her explanation without question, just smiling up at her.

She stared back, confused and awestruck in the face of his sunny disposition.

“Oh!” he exclaimed, breaking the staring contest. “I got your work for you.”

“Work? Yesterday was the first day of school,” Marinette replied, surprised enough to push out an entire sentence normally.

“Well, yeah… We didn’t have much work, really. But I wanted to make sure you didn’t fall behind.” He looked embarrassed for a moment, one hand moving to scratch his head before he confessed, “I guess I just wanted an excuse to check on you, since you didn’t come back, but then I realized I have no idea where you live.”

Marinette’s last accomplishment of normal interaction was immediately trampled by her next reaction, which was mostly to stare at him, gaping like a fish, face aflame. Her brain had short circuited, or exploded, or something, because the idea that he had taken enough of an interest in her to go that far was too much for her to handle. She stared at him for several long moments, and he just became flustered under her disbelieving stare.

“Is that too weird?” he asked, dropping his hand to his side slowly. His smile fell slightly as well, but Marinette could only watch this transformation with silent horror, because her brain was still malfunctioning. She managed through a herculean effort to shake her head, but she was trying to remember how to speak when the teacher called for the attention of the class.

He must have gotten her meaning, or something, because he shot her a smile, hesitation forgotten, before turning to pay attention to the teacher.

Marinette’s head was buzzing. He was paying attention to her. A lot of attention. Maybe he was just being kind, but it  _really_  didn’t seem like that. Alya’s words from before ran through her mind and she felt herself reddening. It was fantastic. It was horrifying. It was exhilarating. It was terrifying.

At the very least, it was bad for her concentration. She didn’t hear a single word the teacher spouted, lost in the labyrinth of her own thoughts. Him paying attention to her was a good thing, wasn’t it? It didn’t feel like a good thing, because she felt like she was dying, but probably in a good way. Maybe?

This was the worst best thing to ever happen to her.

Adrien turned to look at her, expectation glinting in his eyes, and she finally registered that the teacher had stopped speaking. She glanced around and saw some people looking around in the same awkward confusion as herself, and some looking at each other with the same expectation that Adrien held. Unable to understand the situation from her glance, she resorted to looking at Adrien again, feeling like nothing more than a deer in the headlights.

Adrien let out a short huff of laughter, and finally cleared up Marinette’s confusion. “We’ve been assigned a partner project as a way to ‘facilitate communication and foster new friendships,’ apparently, and I was hoping you would be my partner.”

Marinette watched his joking impression of their teacher with a barely suppressed giggle and nodded as he finished, sadly aware that she would agree to anything he asked while he smiled up at her like that. She felt her face heating up again, but she was determined not to let her brain fry for the second time in less than an hour.

“Great!” he cheered, picking up his books and moving to sit next to her. “I’m actually pretty good at physics, so count yourself lucky.”

His tone was almost teasing, and Marinette found herself smiling just a little too wide. “I’m terrible at physics!” left her mouth before she could think better of it, sounding entirely too cheerful, and she immediately tried to backtrack. “I mean, I’m not that bad, you won’t have to worry about carrying this by yourself, but I’m not that good at it, so what I mean to say is-”

“It’s okay, Marinette,” Adrien replied, patting her on the shoulder. Marinette tensed at the touch, but the contact was only in passing, and his hand was soon focused on the blank paper in front of him. But the ghost of his warmth lingered, and she couldn’t focus on anything he was saying even as he began writing down ideas.

She lifted her hand and placed it almost reverently on the spot where he had patted her shoulder, staring off into the distance with a giddy smile on her face, retreating into daydreams because the reality was too overwhelming. Yet the reality didn’t like being ignored, even if she did look quite happy, and he quietly poked her in the side.  

“How about we meet over lunch to talk about this as well?”

Marinette let her daydreams dissolve, and looked at Adrien almost guiltily. “Y-yeah, that’s probably a good idea.” She was about to offer her house as a meeting place when she remembered her conversation with her mother the prior night, and promptly shut her mouth as a wave of horror crashed over her. Her mother would  _never_ meet him.

“Ah, but my house is not the best place to get work done. Is yours okay?” he said, and Marinette revised her last statement.

Her mother  _might_  meet him.

She could avoid it by just saying no. She could suggest a cafe, or a library. A library made sense. All she had to do was say no and suggest a library. Easy. Marinette silently rehearsed her answer a few times before looking up and meeting his gaze. “That’s fine!” she squeaked.

Damn it.

Marinette revised her statement one last time. Her mother was  _going to_  meet him.

Oh god.

Marinette told herself that if she didn’t think about it, then it wasn’t a problem, and just pushed her way through the rest of the day. She had more important matters to think about, like not making a fool of herself in front of Adrien again. Her parents couldn’t do anything to him if she had already freaked him out with her own inability to form coherent sentences.

That was an endeavor she was kind of failing, but he didn’t seem to mind. He actually seemed to be enjoying himself, really, if the smirks he sent her way every time she said something stupid meant anything.

By the time lunch rolled around, Marinette was sure that her face would never return to its natural shade again, but she was so happy she found she didn’t even care. Adrien was even better than she had ever dreamed. He was kind and smart and still really attractive. The only flaw in his perfection was his terrible sense of humor, but it was so bad she found herself laughing anyway. It was kind of endearing actually, though she would never say that to his face. Alya’s encouragement from yesterday and the attention she was getting from Adrien pushed her mood even higher, and she couldn’t have wiped the smile off of her face if she tried. Even the thought of her parents didn’t bring her down.

She gathered her things and stuffed them into her bag, slinging it over her back carelessly, and bounded down to the classroom door, where Adrien was waiting.

“Shall we?” he asked, and she nodded happily. He offered his arm again and Marinette took it with as little squealing as possible. She was not going to run away this time.

“We have a really good start on the project, and we still have a week to do it, so I think we don’t have to worry about buckling down just yet,” said Adrien as they exited the building.

Marinette nodded in agreement. “S-sorry I was a bit out of it, you’re already doing so much-”

He cut her off with a shake of his head. “You’re doing just as much! So physics isn’t your strength, but who cares? The next time there’s a project in a subject you’re good at, we can pair up and you can make it up to me.”

Marinette eagerly took the chance to work with him again, trying to keep herself from actively cheering. “Yes! Although…” She scrunched her nose, trying to think how her strengths could ever be used academically.

“Although?”

Marinette looked away. He had ducked his head slightly as he spoke, and she was already overheating as it was. She couldn’t look at him when he was so close. “Sewing isn’t generally required for school projects,” she replied, watching a mother and son they were passing. The woman was glaring down at the boy, and the boy was returning her glare with equal vigor. Marinette frowned slightly, distracted by the heated display.

A shadowy figure slipped in between them and Marinette yelped. She covered her mouth with her free hand, and tried to look away, but Adrien’s eyes were already following her line of sight.

He looked from the confrontation to Marinette’s terrified expression and suddenly quickened his pace. Marinette stumbled slightly, not expecting the change, and she glanced back at the mother and son, who were now outright yelling at each other.

“Marinette, don’t,” Adrien said softly, and she looked up at him with confusion. But Adrien just sped up slightly, bringing them to a light jog. Marinette caught herself, and quickly forced her feet to keep up with him.

“A-adrien, wait. Those people-”

Adrien looked at her, an unreadable expression on his face. “We can’t do anything. It’ll go away eventually. They usually don’t-” He cut himself off and stopped moving all at once, and Marinette was stumbling again. He caught her, but seemed too distracted to really notice what he was doing. Marinette righted herself, but her attention was immediately drawn back to the scene, now just small figures on the horizon line.

“Adrien, we have to do something.”

He seemed agitated, unsure of himself, but then he nodded. “Okay, stay here, I’m going to run home to get something.” He took a few steps forward but then hesitated, turning back and grabbing her arm. “Stay safe, okay? Don’t go back there.”

Marinette nodded, but her lips fell into a frown. Luckily, Adrien missed it as he turned and ran, presumably towards his house. As soon as he was out of sight, she ran back toward the fighting, whispering a small apology to Adrien. But she could do something about this, and she wasn’t going to let it keep happening when she had the ability to stop it.

She didn’t know what she was doing, but she’d at least do it confidently. As she approached the two fighting, she scanned the area for the demon. It was gone, but she could tell its influence was still being exerted, as the woman and the boy were almost at each other’s throats. The looks on their faces made fear build in her stomach, and she could sense the oncoming violence. Marinette saw the boy’s hand shoot forward and, not knowing what else to do, just threw herself in between them. She caught the boy’s arm around the wrist, which was reaching out to do  _something_  to the woman, and she didn’t want to wait to find out what. Her sudden intrusion into their confrontation seemed to surprise both of them, and in the moment of surprised stillness she wedged herself in between them more firmly, facing the boy but keeping herself at a slight angle so she could keep an eye on the woman as well.

Recovering from the shock, the boy immediately yanked his arm back, but Marinette was prepared for that, and held fast. What she wasn’t ready for was the jab to the side from the woman, and she found herself stumbling back. Her body reacted faster than her mind, and her free arm shot out to catch the woman’s arm as well, but between the woman’s attack and her reaction, the boy finally escaped her grasp and jumped away, glaring daggers at her. She was only glad that looks couldn’t kill as she locked eyes with the boy. She stared at his eyes for a long moment, brown, but glittering with a red fire, and she felt her own blood pressure spiking. Her grip on the woman’s arm tightened, and she turned and hooked her leg around the woman in one swift movement. Her leg found the back of the woman’s knee and tugged it forward, forcing the woman to buckle, though she was held up by the death-grip Marinette had on her arm.

The sound of feet rapidly hitting pavement slowly faded away, and Marinette came back into herself as the boy ran away. She looked down at the woman on her knees in front of her and dropped the arm as if it had burned her. The woman didn’t seem hurt other than the slightly reddened skin on her arm from Marinette’s grip, but Marinette still found herself fluttering around the woman in concern.

“Are you alright?” Marinette asked, offering a hand. The woman nodded, took the assistance, and stood up shakily. She glanced around, dazed and confused.

“What happened?” she asked, and Marinette had no answer for her. She was still trying to figure that out herself. She clenched her fists, tucking them behind her back. “Where’s Benjamin?”

“The boy? He… I’ll go get him,” Marinette replied, head still spinning. She had never felt such a spike of anger in her life. She turned on her heel and ran after where she thought the boy had gone as she tried to figure it out.

Her mind flashed to the fear she had felt pinned beneath the demon yesterday, but conclusions were stalled by the boy coming into her view again. He was slumped against a lamppost, looking around in confusion. The moment Marinette looked into his eyes again, she knew the demon had left.

“Hey, your mother is looking for you,” she said softly, stopping next to him for just a moment to point back towards where the woman was probably still standing confused in the middle of the sidewalk. The boy nodded and started walking back, and Marinette kept running. She didn’t know where the demon had gone, but she started this, and she wasn’t going to stop now. She kept running, eyes darting around her with urgency. The moment she spotted movement, she changed her course and ran towards it. A black figure darted from the open street into a side alley, and she followed, hot on its heels.

She entered the alley, and realized several things at once. One, the alley was a dead end. Two, it was completely empty. Which meant three, the demon was nowhere to be seen. She took a few steps forward, looking around with suspicion, but found nothing. She sighed, ready to backtrack, but when she turned around she was greeted with bright red eyes. She found herself paralyzed again, even as her pulse spiked. Her heart sped up to beat a warning song loud in her chest, but she couldn’t move more than to curl her fingers into tight fists. She could feel her nails creating pricks of pain in her palm, but it did nothing to snap her out of her paralysis. Her brow furrowed and her lips morphed into a snarl, every muscle in her body tightening, but  _she couldn’t move_.

And there was no Tikki to punch it away this time.

Marinette’s legs gave out and she fell to her knees, eyes still captured in the red gaze of the demon. She wanted to lash out, to grab the demon and throttle it, and the thoughts would scare her if she could see any way out of this moment. But this moment was eternal, a heated moment of boiling blood and tensed jaw and clenching fists with no escape in sight. She had no idea how long she had been in this alley, but she supposed it didn’t matter if she was never going to leave it.

“Marinette!” a voice called, and a bolt of black energy broke her eye contact with the demon. Marinette fell forward, her arms catching her weight, and she stared at the ground as she took a deep breath, her heart still beating erratically in her chest. But she didn’t get any time to calm down before she was moving again, but not of her own volition. As the world righted itself, Marinette realized that she was being carried, bridal-style. She looked up in shock, and saw a face covered with a shadowy mask. She couldn’t see his eyes but she could see his head of blond hair. He looked down at her then, a wry smile on his lips.

“You didn’t stay safe,” he admonished, and tightened his hold on her. Marinette gaped for a few moments before she looked away, over his shoulder, to the alley where the demon still sat.

“We- we have to do something. You, wait, what did you  _do_?”

“I’ll explain later. We have to run now.”

Marinette began to struggle, trying to get him to drop her. “No, we have to go back,” she exclaimed, and finally pushed her way out of his grip. She caught herself as she fell, and started running back before she had even stood up completely straight. Adrien was stunned by her bold words for a moment, but quickly started running after her. He grabbed her hand and tugged, trying to get her to stop.

“Marinette-”

“If we leave it alone, it’s only going to do it again,” she cut him off, no hesitance in her voice at all. “Distract it,” she commanded, and though he seemed confused, the authority in her tone left him smiling just a little.

“Anything you say,” he replied, though he obviously wasn’t completely sold. He immediately jumped towards it, hand outstretched. A long baton made of the same shadowy material as his mask quickly formed from nothingness and within a second he was thrusting it at the demon, forcing it to jump back. Marinette watched for a moment, worried that he’d be caught in its gaze as she had been, but he didn’t seem to be having the same problem. She set that aside and snuck past the fight, situating herself behind the demon, and waited. Adrien went after the demon with quick, sure thrusts of his weapon, but it was fast. It dodged every blow, and was steadily driving him backwards, into the open space, where it could run.

Marinette wasn’t going to let that happen. Adrien lunged forward and the demon jumped back to avoid it, and Marinette took her chance. She grabbed it, ignoring the electric shock, closed her eyes, and placed her lips on its forehead, muttering a small blessing in her head. She felt a surge of power flow from her lips to the demon, and then with a flash it was gone.

Marinette looked up at him, confidence from the battle blowing away on the wind just as his mask dissolved into no more than smoke. A black cat ran between them, quickly jumping his way onto Adrien’s shoulder and headbutting his cheek insistently. Adrien absentmindedly brought a hand up to the animal, but his eyes didn’t leave Marinette.

“What was that?” he asked, almost reverently. The cat stopped bothering him for a moment to turn to look at Marinette. His eyes glinted.

Marinette blushed, shrinking into herself just a little. “I could ask you the same thing.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh man, I wonder what's up with that cat. I bet none of you could EVER guess.
> 
> (On another note, finals are about to descend upon me, so the next chapter will probably be an even longer wait than this one.)


	7. Expectation is the root

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey! My month long hiatus is over! I'm so sorry for the wait- finals and then other responsibilities just sucked all of my time and creativity dry, but this chapter made it out eventually!
> 
> Shout out to Oz, Dark, Ci, and Tash for loving this story and encouraging me when I was having trouble <3

Marinette glanced around the cafe yet again, unable to place if the anxiety pumping through her veins was due to the secrets the two were about to trade or because she was sitting in a secluded corner of a cafe waiting for a boy with gorgeous eyes that recently were fixated on her as if she had all the answers. She settled on a third option with a small sigh, deciding that she was nervous because she knew that though Adrien was looking at her so expectantly, the eagerness would soon fade once he realized she didn’t know what she was doing. And she would really miss that look. Ever since she had laid her lips on the demon, vaporizing it in a blinding flash of light, his eyes had held a sense of wonder and awe that made her entire body feel hot. And she had gotten quite a good look into them when she had collapsed from exhaustion after the adrenaline of the fight wore off. Marinette found herself blushing as she remembered the way he had caught her and held her close, looking at her like she was the most precious thing in the world.

Even as they decided to find somewhere to sit and discuss the matter, the look in his eyes had been breathtaking. But the gaze also held an expectation that she knew she would not meet, and that thought doused any happy dreams with a rush of cold reality, and the exhaustion crept back into her bones. A voice in the back of her mind reassured her that he had shown interest before he knew of her power, but another, crueler voice insisted that she had been making it up, reading too closely into his actions and finding motivations that suited her own desires.

The swirl of emotions faded to a dull roar as he slid into the chair across from her, placing a plate of food between them. A third voice quickly drowned out both her rationality and her insecurities as it began shrilly screaming that _oh my god he’s smiling at me and we’re sharing food and this is kind of a lunch date and someone hold me he’s talking and- oh shit, he’s talking and I need to be listening._

“-is how you were able to do that! Plagg and I have been dealing with them for a while but all we’ve ever been able to do is chase them away, but _you_ did… I don’t actually know what you did but it was _amazing_!”

Marinette was silent for a few moments, trying to understand the boy moving a mile a minute. Her mind was moving too sluggishly to keep up. “I’m…” she began, but then trailed off. She decided to take another route. “Who’s Plagg?”

“My patron spirit. Or, that’s what he insists he’s called. I’m not sure there’s an actual name for it.” Adrien smiled bashfully, rubbing the back of his neck.

“I have no reason to lie to you,” a dry voice replied to Adrien, and Marinette’s eyes snapped to the source of the voice: the cat curled around Adrien’s neck. With everything else happening, she had forgotten to even question the appearance of the cat.

“Your cat talks,” stated Marinette, surprisingly calmly. Her exhaustion clashed with the panic rising in her mind. “Your cat talks, and you are apparently a demon fighter, and _I’m_ apparently a demon fighter, and _this is fine_!” she continued, considerably less calmly. As she added more items to her list, her voice hitched higher and higher and her arms began flailing wildly.

The cat scoffed- _because cats can scoff now, apparently_ \- and spoke again. “Adrien, I think some of your empathy would be useful right now. She’s going to attract an audience.”

Adrien snapped out of his confused state and slowly reached out, grabbing Marinette’s hands out of the air and gently bringing them down to the table. As he pinned her with a gentle look, she pulled her hands back, looked down, and began stuffing her face with the fries sitting between them, looking for anything to avoid meeting his gaze.

“Marinette, how long have you been dealing with the demons?” His voice was soothing, as if talking to a frightened animal. Marinette forcibly swallowed down her mouthful of food and then took a deep breath before answering.

“A little over a day,” she admitted in a tiny voice, still staring at the table. Her vision began to swim, and she took another fry to try and center herself. But she couldn’t stop herself from glancing up through her lashes just in time to watch as his smile fell. He replaced it almost immediately with another smile, but even with her small experience in reading his face she could tell it was not nearly as genuine. The cruel voice in the back of her head began laughing. She tried to ignore it as Adrien nodded slowly, his eyes softening from their excited gleam. Her eyes dropped back to the table.

“So you’re probably really confused.”

“A bit,” she admitted, sadly stuffing another fry into her mouth, trying to give herself anything to do other than think about how she already missed the look in his eyes.

“I can start from the beginning, if you’d like.” His voice already sounded remarkably happier, and Marinette finally pried her eyes up and looked him in the eye.

She swallowed back her disappointment, knowing it wasn’t fair to him, and nodded, doing her best to look interested. “I could use an explanation for once,” she added, her voice remarkably steady, if a bit quiet.

“Then I would not be a gentleman if I kept you waiting.” He flashed a smirk at her, and despite everything she still blushed. She really needed to get a handle on that. “I don’t know everything, but nothing really seems new to me because I’ve been able to see spirits since I can remember. But I’ve never met anyone else who can see them.”

Marinette missed the look he gave her as she fell into her own thoughts. She had forgotten that Tikki said normal people couldn’t see the demons. But in her defense, there were a lot of things happening at once at the time.

“They usually don’t do anything,” Adrien continued, pulling her attention back to him, “but lately the demons have been acting up.” He frowned slightly, and Marinette almost spiraled back into an inner monologue about how cute he was, but his next words cut her off. “I should probably apologize for being overbearing these last few days. I kept bothering you because I suspected you might be able to see what I could see, and I was so excited about the idea. And then I remembered that they’ve been getting worse lately, and I was worried you didn’t have a patron like I did and, well. I thought I would have to protect you, but I can see now that you can protect yourself.”

Marinette’s heart lifted at the smile he gave her, and then the significance of his words began to sink in. He had just thrown a lot of information at her, but her tired brain clung to one fact that he had just made readily apparent. He had never been interested in her. Even in the beginning, he only was interested in her abilities. She had already accepted that his newfound interest was based on what had just happened, but somewhere in the back of her mind she had been clinging to the idea that she was more than that, and that he had seen that. But that hope was crushed. It hurt more than she expected it to.

The cruel voice in her mind cackled again as it was proven right, and Marinette could feel the tears beginning to gather in the corners of her eyes. She stood up abruptly, startling both of them, and finally managed to get out, “I need a moment, I’m sorry.”

And then she ran.

She found herself locked in the bathroom, holding back tears and standing on shaky legs, and immediately she was berating herself.

“Marinette, calm d-down. You’re, you’re not really that upset. This is just a very stressful time,” she quietly told herself, but her tremulous voice was not very convincing. She took a deep breath and continued. “He’s only k-known you for a day, so who cares if he doesn’t like you? And, and you’ve only been cultivating this crush for just as long, so it can’t hurt that much. You shouldn’t have gotten your hopes up in the first place.” She winced at her own words, but continued her little rant. “He doesn’t like you, but he doesn’t _dislike_ you, and he’s interested in your powers, so it’s a start. Right? Right. If you really like him, you don’t want to upset him, so just let your little infatuation go and _smile_.”

Part of her wanted to laugh at how short lived a crush it had been. She had fallen for him deeply and desperately, had her heart broken, and decided to give up and just be his friend within the span of two days. She sure moved fast.

But another part of her felt that for whatever reason, this heartbreak was warranted. Logically, she knew it was ridiculous to expect him to love her after knowing her for such a short amount of time. Logically, she knew it was ridiculous to even _apply_ the word love to this situation. But logic broke and fractured in the wake of his eyes, and his smile, and every new detail she learned about him.

None of that mattered, of course, because whatever it all was, she was letting it go. She was letting go of an impossible crush, and she would mourn for little bit later, but not now. Now, she needed to smile.

Marinette wasn’t sure if that counted as a pep talk or not, but whatever it was, it did the trick. As she exited the room, the urge to cry was wrangled into something she could deal with. She knew she was a terrible actress, but she still made her way back to the table with the closest thing to a smile she could manage. Though her spikes in emotion seemed to drive the exhaustion away for a moment, it always found its way back in. Her body felt heavy.

As she laid eyes on him again, her traitorous heart sped up just a little bit. She regretfully noted that getting rid of this crush would take a lot of work.

Adrien was in the middle of what appeared to be an intense argument with his cat, hissing at the spirit under his breath. But as Marinette approached the table, the cat finally headbutted Adrien, and that seemed to end the argument. She quietly sat back down, watching as Adrien rubbed his cheek and frowned at Plagg, who now appeared to be taking a nap. But as he looked up at her, the frown dissolved into a smile.

She could content herself with that. All she needed to do was appreciate his smile and watch from afar.

“Sorry,” Marinette said, proud of her stable voice, “a lot has happened in a short amount of time. I needed a short time out.”

“Of course. Are you okay?” He reached his hand toward her, but stopped halfway across the space, his eyes widening a fraction. He hesitated a moment and then diverted his hand down to the plate of food in the middle of the table, taking a fry. He took a moment to stare at it in silent horror at his own awkwardness, and then slowly ate it as a blush spread over his face.

Marinette watched the entire moment (which only lasted a few seconds) with a sort of fascination, glad that she wasn’t the one being horribly awkward for a change. But she took pity on him and acted as if she hadn’t noticed, though a part of her wished he had reached out and touched her. But that couldn’t have been what he meant to do. She silently reprimanded herself for failing the ‘watch from afar’ plan in less than thirty seconds, and steeled herself for her reply. “I’m fine, thank you. Can we go back to the explanation?”

“Yes, please,” replied Adrien almost on reflex. A beat later, his eyes widened as if he was surprised that he had said that, and he let out a breath through his nose in exasperation. He shook his head slowly as he continued talking. “ _Anyway_ , where were we?”

“I… don’t remember,” Marinette admitted softly. She was trying to look away from the blush on his cheeks, but as nice as it looked it made her internal walls begin to crumble. And she couldn’t start crying again. She tried to reach for a topic, and finally settled on a question that had been niggling her for a while. “But can you explain to me the mask? And… just all of that?” she asked, waving her hands vaguely towards him.

He nodded, a smirk catching his lips. “I have Plagg to thank for those. He lends me his powers when I need them. I don’t know _why_ he still hangs around me, but I guess in times like that he’s at least useful and not just another lazy housepet.”

“I take offense to that,” Plagg piped up from his spot curled around Adrien’s neck, though he didn’t even bother to open his eyes. “But at least you keep me fed.”

“Why the mask, though? I couldn’t even see your eyes,” Marinette interjected, breaking the one-sided staring contest Adrien had started.

“The demons manipulate your emotions through eye contact. And it can get nasty. The mask is a precaution,” answered Plagg, cutting off Adrien. “They rile you up, and then drain you using the same emotions they provoked. That’s probably why you want to sleep for the next week. But all of the fighting tires me out, too, so can you not get into any more fights? The last two were too close together.”

Adrien nodded, a slight pout sneaking onto his face. “The attacks have been increasing, lately. Normally I could go months without any demon involvement that could turn dangerous. But now they’re happening two days in a row.”

Marinette nodded slowly at Plagg’s explanation of her current state, but she paled as she took in Adrien’s words. “Two days in a row? You were attacked yesterday, too?”

“There was an entire pack of them that were extremely agitated near the school. I had to chase them off.”

“Oh shit, I’m so sorry!” Marinette exclaimed, covering her mouth in slight horror. She hadn’t even thought about what happened to the rest of the demons from yesterday. After all, only three of them had followed her. The rest must have stayed behind.

Adrien quirked a brow and waved her apology off. “You didn’t do anything.”

Marinette couldn’t reply.

“...Did you do something?”

Her eyes widened guiltily, but she still couldn’t respond.

“You saw one in the morning. You ran into me because you were chasing it,” Adrien spoke slowly, as if putting together pieces of a puzzle. Marinette stayed silent. After a heavy silence, Adrien asked, “You chased after one at lunch, didn’t you?”

“And it led me to its family,” she admitted miserably, but her hands were still covering her mouth and her eyes were still laced with guilt.

“And that’s why you didn’t come back to school,” he said, realization dawning on him. “That’s exactly what I was- how did you get away? Are you okay?” His voice pitched up in concern, and Marinette felt her heart squeeze.

“I climbed a tree and ran away,” Marinette said carefully, slowly setting her hands down. He looked so concerned, she couldn’t help but try to downplay what had happened. “I didn’t mean to leave a mess for you, and I’m so sorry.”

“No, it’s fine, I’ve dealt with it before. But you- didn’t they follow you?”

“Maybe a few,” Marinette admitted, looking off to the side.

“A _few_?”

“...Three.”

“And you’ve never fought them before?”

“I had never seen them before. But- but Tikki told me what to do, and she helped.” Marinette felt herself sinking slightly in her seat under his incredulous gaze.

“Tikki? Is that your patron spirit?”

“Uh… I guess?” She was a spirit that came to help her. That sounded like a patron.

“I doubt it,” muttered Plagg, but Adrien simply ignored him.

“So what power does she have that allowed you to- to- do that thing with the light? That got rid of the demon,” Adrien asked, a flash of the same excitement from before lighting up his features. “I’ve never seen anything like it.”

Marinette took a deep breath, reminding herself she was letting him go. Even if he occasionally looked at her like she was the sun, it was just because of her powers. “I, uh…. blessed him? And the positive energy disrupted its negative energy?” She repeated the explanation Tikki had given her, though she still hardly understood it herself.

“Can you do that?” Adrien asked, the question addressed to Plagg.

“Nah,” the spirit answered. With a nudge from his charge, he finally opened his eyes and sat up. “No, really, I can’t. Not my field of expertise.” He turned his luminescent green eyes on Marinette, and she suddenly felt as if he could see through her. “Like I said earlier, _she’s_ special. You should keep her.”

“Plagg!” Adrien exclaimed, shoving the cat off of his shoulder. Without missing a beat, the animal twisted and landed gracefully on his feet and then turned around and jumped right back onto his shoulder.

Marinette turned pink, blinking in confusion. “What?”

“Don’t mind him, really. He never says anything worth paying attention to, ever. I promise. Just tune him out,” Adrien replied, though his eyes were turned towards the spirit rather than Marinette, his lips pursed in annoyance.

Marinette looked at Plagg, the image of the chesire cat flashing into her mind. But Plagg had managed to take that image up a notch, and he was proving to her that cats could not only smile, but they could also _smirk_. And somehow that smirk managed to make him look like a complete asshole.

“One day, you’re gonna wish you listened to me more, kid,” Plagg stated with finality. And then he closed his eyes and went back to sleep, cutting off any chance of rebuttal.

Despite the fact that the cat was obviously no longer listening, Adrien still muttered, “Not a chance.”

Marinette giggled at the exchange, finding it completely endearing. Adrien looked up from his grumbling at the sound, and Marinette tried to smile, but it was cut off by a yawn.

“We should get you back to school,” Adrien immediately said, standing. Marinette blinked up at him in confusion. “Alya… doesn’t know what’s happening, but we have a don’t ask, don’t tell kind of agreement. You can rest with her.”

“But we’ve barely even eaten,” Marinette complained, standing up despite her protest. Adrien immediately offered his arm and Marinette took it almost on reflex. She pushed away any warring thoughts on the matter. She could allow herself one thing.

“And we didn’t even touch our project,” added Adrien, though he was watching Marinette with a careful eye. She carefully kept as much exhaustion out of her posture as possible. “But I still have some time to grab food, and I can bring you something to eat in the infirmary.”

Marinette nodded slowly, and they exited the cafe in silence. A thick silence descended between them as they walked down the street, and Marinette’s mind strayed back to the project. “...Did you just ask to be my partner on the project so you could watch over me?” The question was out of her mouth before she had thought it through.

Adrien seemed surprised at her question, but he soon recovered himself and blushed slightly. He hesitated answering, and several moments were spent with him staring at her, and her dully looking back. When he finally answered, his voice was a little higher than normal. “Yeah. Yes. I was just… I was just worried for your wellbeing. That’s all. Just worried for a fellow classmate.” He nodded and turned his gaze steadily forward as he finished speaking.

“Oh.” Marinette felt his words impact her physically, the last nail in the coffin hitting her straight through the heart. She had already been through this, damn it. Why was she reacting again now?

Marinette mostly wanted to smack herself at this point, but instead she just let her shoulders curve in and her steps slow. Adrien looked back at her in concern, but she couldn’t find it in herself to care at the moment. Her physical and emotional exhaustion were combining, swirling into one dark pit of fatigue that was slowly overtaking her mind.

“Are you sure you want to go back to school?” he asked quietly.

Marinette wanted to answer no, but she couldn’t skip the second half of school for the second day in a row, so she just slowly nodded. If there were any kind gods out there, she prayed to them that she would get a normal lunch break tomorrow. Or at least not experience so _much_ in the short time slot. That would be nice.

“Alright,” Adrien agreed, though the hesitance was evident in his voice. “But you’re going to sleep at least a little bit. Alya won’t let you go back to class like this.”

Marinette nodded again, and the two made their way back to the school in silence. Every so often she could feel his gaze on her, but whatever was on his mind, he never actually spoke. So she let the weariness lull her into a grey haze, a bittersweet reprieve from the high emotions of the past hour. She watched the walk back to the school, up the steps, and directly to the nurse’s office as more of an outsider than a participant, and she only snapped back into reality when she heard Alya’s voice.

“Okay, last time I was joking, but seriously, what did you do to her this time?” the nurse asked as she turned to see Adrien setting her gently onto the same bed as their last visit.

Adrien laughed lightly. “Are you going to blame me every time she shows up?” he asked as innocently as possible. Marinette tried to smile, but the endeavor fell short, and Adrien sobered. “She needs to rest. A lot has happened.”

Alya and Adrien looked at each other for a long moment, a silent conversation passing between them before Alya turned to Marinette with a frown on her face. She gave Adrien a significant look and he was out of the room with one last concerned smile thrown Marinette’s way.

“You know, there are better ways to seduce someone,” chided Alya as soon as Adrien was out of earshot. Marinette had enough energy to blush at the comment, but she only shook her head and laid back on the bed, making herself comfortable. “I’m serious,” Alya continued, sitting on the edge of the bed. “Look, I don’t know what’s going on, but I know the kind of injuries he’s asked me to help him hide, and I know the look in his eyes when he’s come to ask for a place to sleep. It’s scary empty. Kinda like you right now.”

Marinette closed her eyes, letting a small sigh slip out. “I didn’t get involved because of him,” she whispered. “But this is going to tie us together, isn’t it?”

Alya didn’t reply, and Marinette suspected she was getting a very loaded look, but she didn’t open her eyes to confirm. However, as a soft weight settled on top of her body she finally pried her eyes open to look at the blanket Alya had given her. She curled into its warmth and let out a sigh, her eyes drifting shut again.

“I don’t think I even got your name, and I’m already taking care of you,” tutted Alya from somewhere to Marinette’s left.

“...Sorry,” Marinette mumbled, already feeling the edges of consciousness getting fuzzy.

“Don’t be. It’s my job, and even if it wasn’t I’d still do it. But you have to promise me one thing.”

“Mm?”

“Be careful, girl. Don’t get yourself hurt for him. He’s just a boy.”

Marinette didn’t reply, sleep tugging at her insistently, and Alya simply sighed and accepted it.

Right before Marinette fell completely asleep, she called out, “Alya?”

“Yeah?”

“My name... it’s Marinette.”

Alya laughed drily. “...Nice to meet you, Marinette.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alya wasn't even supposed to be in this chapter and Yet


	8. His masterpiece

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm sorry this took so long! Not only did school happen, but I actually had 2 other things I wrote in the meantime. (They'll both be posted on Valentine's Day, if you're wondering!)
> 
> In any case, I'm sorry for the wait! Here is a transitional chapter in which nothing all that major happens. Character interactions are all I am capable of caring about, I apologize. Except not really. I love them.
> 
> This is at the moment unbeta'd, but thanks to the kindness of my friends that will not be so in the future! I got a bit impatient with this chapter (because it's already been long enough) so I'm jumping the gun but! In the future. It will be shiny and beta'd.

Marinette woke slowly, senses trickling through into her consciousness. She sat up, rubbing her head and squinting at the room. Everything seemed slightly off, as if she were viewing a picture from the wrong angle, and she couldn’t tell if it was the lingering sleep blurring her vision or the pounding in her head.

“Hey hey, go back to sleep. It’s barely been half an hour, your energy can’t have come back that quickly,” Alya said from across the room.

“I feel fine,” Marinette replied without thinking, and then slowly amended. “Well, mostly.” She felt like a chainsaw murderer was hacking at her brain, but the fatigue from earlier was practically nonexistent.

“Usually Adrien sleeps for at least an hour, and you looked wiped out.” Alya sounded concerned, and Marinette looked blearily in her direction, still riding the conversation on autopilot.

“But this body recovers power much faster than his.” She rubbed at her eyes, missing the look Alya gave her.

“And why is that?”

“Because it’s not-” Another heavy pound in her head stopped her from finishing the sentence, and she closed her eyes until the feeling faded away. When she opened them again, the trickle of information turned into a deluge and the world snapped into place, leaving her breathless for a moment.

“It’s not what?” Alya prompted, and Marinette inhaled. She looked around the room again, trying to find the end of that sentence, but she came up empty. She let the breath out in an exasperated huff.

“I don’t remember where I was going with that.”

“And that’s why you should keep sleeping,” the nurse said with a roll of her eyes.

“I’m fine other than a hea-” Marinette started, but stopped herself as she realized her head had stopped pounding.

“Girl, if you can’t even finish a sentence, I wouldn’t call you ‘fine’.”

“No, really. I’m good now. Maybe a little hungry… I never really did get lunch.”

“Well, Prince Charming has you covered there. He brought back some food for you.”

Marinette managed not to flush at the nickname, shaking her head slightly. “He’s not my Prince Charming.”

“Never said he was _yours_ ,” Alya pointed out with a smug smile, and Marinette actually did flush this time.

“Can I just have my food?” she asked quietly, and Alya stood up and delivered a paper plate to her bedside. Marinette took it without making eye contact, but Alya’s suggestive look was not lost even in her periphery.

“No need to be so embarrassed. Like I said, I’m rooting for you.”

“You don’t have to root for me, I dropped out of the race.” Marinette shifted the plate on her lap, poking at a piece of bread before finally picking it up and taking a small bite. She didn’t need to look up to hear the surprise in the other girl’s voice.

“Already? It’s been like, a day!”

“Well…” Marinette chewed thoughtfully, weighing her responses. “He’s not interested in me, not really, so I decided not to get my hopes up.”

“He’s not interested in you?” Alya asked, incredulous. “He definitely is.”

“There’s… He’s interested in me, but not _interested_ in _me_.”

“You know that literally makes no sense, right?”

Marinette groaned, burying herself in her food instead of responding, so Alya continued.

“He obviously likes you, and he probably has since he first saw you. I mean, he’s not in love with you, but you can’t expect that because we’re on day two.”

“His original interest wasn’t because of me, though.”

Alya sighed at the dejected girl, her voice taking on a stern but fond tone. “Okay, I’m assuming that is related to whatever it is that boy is tangled up with, so I’m not going to ask. But I _am_ going to say that you’re being stupid.”

“Ugh, I know!”

“As long as you’re aware,” Alya said with a snort of laughter. She stole the now empty plate away from Marinette’s hands, which were already tearing the edges in her frustration. “You’re allowed to be stupid about relationships, but not about your health. So we need to have a proper talk. Don’t think I didn’t notice you not answering me before you fell asleep. You were tired, but a yes isn’t that hard to say.”

Marinette shifted uncomfortably, looking everywhere but at Alya.

“Look, I’ve already established with Adrien that he’s not going to tell me anything, but we still have ground rules.” Alya paused, and Marinette finally looked at her. The nurse was frowning, her hands on her hips. “One, come to me any time you’ve been affected, whether or not you think you can work through it. I don’t care if you think you’re fine, let me help. Two, listen to my orders when you are hurt. No exceptions. Three, don’t do anything you don’t have to. Putting yourself in exhausting or dangerous situations is unacceptable. Don’t play the hero. Those rules now apply to you, especially that last one.” Alya eyed Marinette critically, and she gave a guilty smile.

“I know what you think, but I’m really not doing anything because of him.”

“You better not be. I know that being his confidant might seem like a good way to get close to him, but you can be a secret keeper without getting involved.”

Marinette couldn’t help the guilty thought that even if she hadn’t been involved, she might have done exactly what Alya was implying. But it didn’t matter, because she was involved. “I was involved before I even knew he had a secret to keep.”

“Good, because boys are worth a pen and a pack of gum at most. Not worth a broken leg.” She punctuated her sentence by sitting on the edge of the bed and crossing her arms.

Marinette laughed at the other girl’s dismissal, holding herself back from contradicting her. She had given up on pursuing him, right? So it didn’t matter if she thought that Adrien was worth so much more than that. But the last words still tugged at her heart, and she couldn’t stop herself from asking, “Has he broken his leg before?”

Alya looked at her for several seconds before she let out a breath. “Once. Most of the time he just comes in exhausted, but a few times I’ve had to treat scratches or even what looked like stab wounds.”

Marinette winced, thinking about the pain of having to fight those things without anyone to help. She had faced them twice and both times had needed someone to save her. Having to feel that anger, that fear, all by yourself, and with no way out… She never wanted Adrien to have to do that.

“No, stop it. Stop that look on your face right now. Girl, what was I _just_ saying?”

“You said not to get involved. But I’m already involved.”

“I also said boys are worth a pen and a pack of gum. That still applies.”

“Friendships can be made or broken over gum.”

“Marinette, you’re crazy.”

She sighed, falling back into the pillows and looking down at the bed, her next confession quieter than the rest of the conversation. “I don’t know why I care so much. It doesn’t make sense."

Alya laughed lightly, rolling her eyes. “I guess love rarely does.”

Marinette pulled her gaze up, finally managing to focus on the nurse in front of her. “...Love?”

“You love him, don’t you?” Alya’s voice seemed softer.

“Like you said, it’s been like a day.” Marinette curled into herself just a little.

Alya smiled at her. “Yeah, but some hearts can fall faster than others. I don’t know if I believe in love at first sight, but you might change my mind.” She reached out and flicked Marinette’s forehead lightly. “You get this look in your eyes.”

Marinette blinked, pulling her head back as she took in the words the nurse offered her. “Oh no. No, it’s just a crush.”

Alya just nodded at her, smiling cryptically. “Well, you know your feelings better than I do.”

Marinette worried her lip, wondering if that was even true. “Right.”

Alya pushed off of the bed, stretching her arms above her head as she spoke. “Alright, I’m not the most professional person, but I should send you off to class if you’re fine now. As an educator, it just wouldn’t be right to keep you here when you could be _learning_.”

“So, you’re kicking me out?”

“Yep. Get out.” With those words, Alya gave her a playful shove, and Marinette allowed her worries to bury themselves under her laughter.

“Okay, okay! No need to get handsy.” She got out of the bed carefully, making sure her legs were strong enough to carry her weight, but with the smile on her lips, the situation didn’t seem so dire.

In response to her gibe, Alya only winked.

Marinette giggled, feeling steady enough on her feet. “Thank you for everything, Alya.”

“You totally owe me,” the nurse replied.

Marinette smiled, amused. “I thought this was your job.”

“Secret keeping and relationship advice aren’t part of the job description.” Alya put one hand on her hip and pointed at the other girl to emphasize her point. “Those bonuses will cost you.”

“Then I guess I do owe you,” Marinette said with a small snort of laughter.

“Absolutely. I take payment in food and gossip. And now, you need to get back to class.”

“The next time I see you, then, will be for food and gossip. I’ll try not to sleep through everything.”

Alya nodded, satisfied, and Marinette offered the girl a wave and a smile as she hurried off to class.

 

Marinette made it through the rest of the day on the energy from her short nap and Alya’s support, but by the time the bell rang, she wanted nothing more than to go home and curl up in her bed. The problem wasn’t a physical fatigue, but after everything that had happened, she could use some alone time to process. She shoved her stuff into her bag as fast as she could and hurried to the door, avoiding every head of blond hair she saw.

She would talk to him again eventually. She wasn’t going to avoid him forever. She didn’t want to avoid him forever. But she didn’t want to talk to him right now.

However, the universe was a selfish thing and didn’t particularly care about what she wanted.

“Marinette!” a familiar voice called, and Marinette tensed. She hesitated for a moment, gauging how easy it would be to slip away and pretend she hadn’t heard anything. As a hand landed on her shoulder, she decided it would be a tad difficult. “Hey, Marinette.”

Marinette took a deep breath and turned to look at Adrien, ignoring her traitorous heart beating a rapid tattoo against her chest. She smiled up at him, nervous now for a completely different reason than previously. “Hi, Adrien.”

“Are you feeling okay? After… you know.” Adrien glanced around the hallway, eyeing the few people still mingling. No one appeared to be listening to their conversation, so he finally settled his worried gaze back on the wide blue eyes beside him. “I never got the chance to ask you after lunch.”

“I took a short nap and feel perfectly fine now. Thank you for worrying.” The words came out stiff and mechanical, and Adrien leaned in a little, his eyebrows furrowing further in concern.

“Are you sure?”

Marinette nodded stiffly and took a step to the side, carefully sliding out from under his hand in the process. “Yes. I’m fine.” She managed to keep herself from grimacing at her own reactions but only barely.

Adrien didn’t seem convinced, but he seemed to pick up on her discomfort. He clasped his hands behind him, and the two stood awkwardly next to each in a heavy silence for a long moment. Finally, he opened his mouth to speak again. “So,” he began. “I know-”

He was cut off by a voice across the hallway. “Oh, dude, _there_ you are! I’ve been waiting for you.”

Marinette looked up, following the source of the voice to a boy who was waving enthusiastically. When she made eye contact with him, his lazy grin grew. He beckoned to her, and she realized belatedly that he had been talking to her. “Oh? Oh! Right, um.” Marinette tugged at the end of her hair, looking between Adrien and this boy she had never seen, much less talked to, before. But he was giving her an out. “I’m sorry! Give me five seconds,” she called to the boy. He nodded, leaning back, and she turned to Adrien, who was looking at the boy with a look that reminded her strongly of a kicked puppy. “I have to go. We can talk later.”

Adrien’s expression snapped to neutral as she addressed him, and then slowly slid into a practiced smile. “Of course. Sorry for keeping you.”

Marinette nodded and then paused. She looked at Adrien, who perked up a little, as if expecting her to say something else. She shook her head and turned, walking towards the other boy with nothing more than, “Well, bye.”

When she reached the other boy, he looked like he wanted to laugh, but she pinned him with a commanding look to shut him up. “Is he still watching?” she hissed.

He glanced over her shoulder to look, gaze lingering too long to just be checking if Adrien was still watching. His smile grew wider before he finally looked back to meet Marinette’s stare, which had slid from commanding to accusing.  “He sure is.”

“Walk me outside first, then.”

The boy raised his eyebrow but said nothing, pushing himself off of the wall he was leaning against. Marinette led the way and he followed behind at a friendly distance. Too close for someone she didn’t know, but if Adrien was still watching, she wasn’t going to do anything.

The second the doors closed behind them, he let the space between them widen, choosing to go back to leaning on a wall. As he relaxed against the exterior of the building, he offered Marinette a hand. “Nino. Your number one escape plan from super awkward situations.”

She pulled a face even as she took his hand in her own. “Marinette. Was it that obvious?”

Nino shook her hand and she found herself surprised at how firm his handshake was. He seemed the lazy type. “Dude, you might as well have been screaming ‘I want to leave’. Did you just break up with him or something?”

Marinette shook her head vehemently, her arms flailing in front of her. “N-no! I would never, I mean, I couldn’t. B-Because we’re not- he wouldn’t-”

Nino held his hands up in surrender, trying to calm the girl while holding back his own laughter. “Not dating?”

Marinette nodded, dropping her arms. “Not dating,” she repeated.

He finally let his laugh escape. “Oh man, I think I get what’s going on, then. Ah, young love.”

“Young love? You-! You’re like the same age as us!”

“You’re a new student here, and I’ve been here three years, dude.”

Marinette finally slowed down enough to take in the person before her, and she realized that despite his easygoing attitude, he was definitely a couple years older than her. Still, she crossed her arms, stubborn. “And how do you know that I’m a new student?”

“Because you’re cute and I would have recognized you if not.”

Marinette blinked, confused at first. Slowly, her face became more and more red as what he said sunk in. “I-”

“Don’t read too much into that,” Nino said with a laugh. “And man, I can recognize lost causes. Count me out.”

Marinette continued gaping at him, unsure of what to say. Finally, she just shook her head. Nino seemed like a good guy, if maybe a little too laid back. “Well, thank you. Again. I think.”

“No prob,” he replied. “If you ever need help again, ask away. Judging from today, you could totally use me to make that guy jealous.”

“His name is Adrien. And I don’t need to make him jealous,” Marinette replied, words firm despite her still red face.

“Oh man, you think you can get him all on your own? I like your confidence. He has some fans, but hey.”

“No! I’m not- I don’t… Ugh! I’m going home.”

Nino just laughed again. “Sorry, sorry. But you’re too easy!”

Marinette turned and stalked away from the school, determined not to give in.

“Bye, Marinette!” Nino called. “See you tomorrow!”

“Good _bye_!” Marinette called back, wanting to get the last word. But his chuckles followed her as she walked away, and she wasn’t sure she won that round.

 

As Marinette opened the door to her home, she felt the tension leave her body in a wave. She barely made it through the door before she collapsed bonelessly into a chair, allowing her head to loll back and her arms to swing by her sides. She closed her eyes and just allowed herself to _breathe_. She could feel the thoughts crowding her brain, but she quietly shifted the focus lens of her mind to force the cacophony of thoughts to fade into the background, leaving only two thoughts in sharp relief.   _Breathe in, breathe out_.

She let herself exist in the blissful plane of the thoughtless for several minutes, but reality couldn’t be avoided forever. This time, reality hurled itself at her in the form a young deity jumping into her lap.

“Marinette! You’re home!”

Marinette opened her eyes, the world rushing back and jumbling instantly in her mind. “Hi, Tikki.” She curled her arms around her sister ( _not sister_ , she had to remind herself) and hugged her close before pushing her off of her lap and standing up.

Tikki hopped down and looked up to Marinette with wide eyes, bouncing lightly from foot to foot. “How did everything go today?”

Flashes of the day’s events rushed through Marinette’s head, but she just shrugged. “Not much. I went out to lunch with a friend.”

“Ooh, Adrien?”

“...Did Mom actually tell you about him?”

“Yes!”

“ _Oh my god_.”

“Tell me more about the lunch!”

Marinette sighed, the energy of her sister (not sister) just making her feel more tired. “I’m sorry, Tikki, I’m really not feeling it right now. Maybe later?”

Tikki finally stopped her excited bouncing and looked Marinette in the eye for the first time since she had gotten home. She immediately switched from excited to concerned. “What happened?”

Marinette reached down and ruffled Tikki’s hair, smiling softly. “Later?”

Tikki grabbed Marinette’s hand and pulled it down, nuzzling against it before releasing it. “Okay.”

 

Marinette didn’t know when later was going to come, but something in her just said _not now_. But avoiding both Adrien and Tikki became increasingly difficult as the week continued. Especially when she could barely explain to herself why she was doing it. Every time she cut a conversation with Adrien short, every time she shook her head and backed away from Tikki, she could hear them asking _Why?_ even if they never bothered her with the question out loud. But the word entered her head and reverberated until it was not them but Marinette herself yelling the question.

After one day of avoiding it, she tried to sit down and dig deep into her own thoughts so she could organize them. She came out with no answers, no deeper understanding, and the worst headache she’d ever had.

So she didn’t allow herself to dwell on it.

At least she made a new friend.

“So, is this like your way of playing hard to get or something?” asked Nino as Marinette met him at the door to her classroom. He’d caught on quickly and learned to catch her at lunch and after school before Adrien could. Marinette was just glad that the week was almost over. Just lunch and a few more classes, and then she wouldn’t have to worry about avoiding at least one of the two people who wanted explanations.

“No, it’s more complicated than that,” answered Marinette, hiking her bag up on her shoulder.

“You keep saying that, and I don’t get it.” Nino pinned her with an uncharacteristically serious look.

Marinette was mostly unaffected. “You’re not supposed to get it. That’s the point of secrets.”

“Secrets don’t make friends, dude,” answered Nino. Despite his words, he relaxed once more, obviously not wanting to pry.

“And yet here you are,” said Marinette, rolling her eyes.

“Aw yeah, we’re friends now?” Nino fist pumped, and Marinette had to hold back her laugh.

“Calm down, it’s not that big a deal.” She grabbed his fist, pulling it down to his side, but he managed to maneuver it so that his arm was slung across her shoulder.

“No way, man, I love friends.” He punctuated the statement by squeezing her, and she shook her head fondly and pushed him away.

“Hey, Marinette.”

Nino and Marinette froze, both looking back to see Adrien standing in the doorway to the classroom Marinette had all but run from after class had ended. She suddenly regretted not moving farther away.

“Hey, Adrien, right?” asked Nino, smoothly sliding away from Marinette and holding a hand out to Adrien.

Adrien looked taken aback and stared at Nino’s hand in confusion, a look which Marinette mirrored. But he soon recovered from his initial shock and took the hand. “Yeah, I’m Adrien.”

“Nino. Mari and I were just talking about you.”

Marinette’s jaw dropped.

“Oh really?” asked Adrien, looking much too interested.

“Yeah, she was just telling me-”

“Nino,” Marinette cut him off sharply, receiving nothing but a smile in response from the boy. “Well, Adrien, it was good talking to you, but we have to get going.” She grabbed Nino’s arm and yanked the boy away, his snickers only fueling her frustration. Adrien was left feeling more confused than he had all week.

As soon as they were far enough away, Marinette started talking, though she didn’t look back at the boy she was hauling down the hall. “What do you think you’re doing?”

“I dunno. Trying to facilitate healthy communication?”

“And why would that be?”

“Because you can’t avoid him forever. Gotta talk some time.”

“Not _now_!”

She could feel the boy shrug. “Then when?”

Marinette didn’t have an answer to that. Just like she didn’t have an answer to his next question.

“Why are you even avoiding him in the first place? You keep saying it’s complicated, but seriously?”

Marinette stopped short, releasing the boy and burying her head in her hands. “Stop asking me questions I can’t answer.”

“I’ll stop if you talk to him.”

“Why do you even care?” Marinette looked up, folding her arms in front of her.

Nino shrugged. “We’re friends now.”

She dropped her arms, the answer not being at all what she was expecting. “Fine. But... later.”

“Mari…”

“ _Tomorrow_.”

“Better. We'll work with it. Now let’s get lunch, I’m hungry.”

Marinette grumbled under her breath but went.

 

When Adrien caught her after school, Marinette nervously smiled up at him and Nino made no appearance.

When he asked if they could talk, she nodded and though their walk out of the school was awkward, she didn’t back out.

When Adrien started the talk with an apology, Marinette regretted not doing it sooner.

“I’m sorry, Marinette. I’m sorry that I dragged you into danger and that I was excited about it, and I’m sorry for whatever else I did that has you avoiding me like the plague, and I’m sorry for not knowing what it is, but can you please stop avoiding me?”

She saw the guilt on his face and heard the quiet, desperate sadness in his voice and regret crashed over her. She had been avoiding him and he had blamed himself. His smile was often her point of fixation, and yet she was the reason it was gone.

Her arms were around him before she realized what she was doing.

“I’m sorry! You didn’t do anything, I just didn’t want to deal with anything and so I was avoiding you and you didn’t do anything and you have nothing to apologize for and I’m so sorry.”

He stumbled slightly as she threw herself at him, but as she rambled out her apology his hands settled around her, returning the hug. Once she finished talking, he squeezed her slightly and let her go. She held on for a couple of seconds before her eyes flew open and she stumbled backwards, blushing again.

He didn’t notice, or if he did, didn’t comment on her delayed release. He only said, “So, we still have the project to work on. I’ve done some things in class, but…”

Marinette winced as he trailed off. She knew that avoiding him in class had hurt their progress on the project, but she was determined to make up for it now.

“We can go to my house,” she offered. “And hopefully actually make it there this time.”

Adrien smiled, and Marinette melted. Despite the embarrassment she knew was waiting for her at home, despite the confused feelings and thoughts that she still hadn’t sorted, for that…. Maybe it was worth it to just start moving forward.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> My notes for this chapter just read "to do: contemplate how Nino managed to take up so much of this chapter when he wasn’t even originally supposed to be in this story. why must you love him so"
> 
> And if you love this fic or me or even if you feel neutral on both of those but enjoy talking, come bother me at my writing blog polkadottedluckycharm.tumblr.com ! 
> 
> I love hearing your theories about things.
> 
> EDIT: I talked about this on my tumblr already, but this story is on hiatus for a little bit! No more than a month or two, hopefully. Here's what I posted on my tumblr, in case you missed it:
> 
> "I’ve been having a lot of personal problems. I won’t get into it here, but issues in my life have just drained me a lot, which means I haven’t been doing a lot of writing that I’m satisfied with lately. I’ve been trying to push through it, but the stuff I’m writing now is just not stuff I particularly like.
> 
> So what does this mean? Well for one, it means I’m officially putting Fortune’s Fool on hiatus. Not forever, just until things improve. I love that story and I don’t want any part of it to be writing I’m particularly unhappy with. I’ll never be totally satisfied with the quality of any of my writing, but I want to have a chapter that I’m proud of when I post it, at least. And right now I can’t do that. (Trust me, I’ve written and rewritten the next chapter, and it just keeps coming out badly.)"
> 
> So yeah. This story WILL be seen to the end, but the next chapter might take some time. Thank you for your patience.


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